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A History of Spartanburg County 










A History of 
Spartanburg County 

COMPILED BY THE 

Spartanburg Unit of the Writers' Program 

of the 

Work Projects Administration 

in the 

State of South Carolina 


American Guide Series 

(Illustrated) 


SPONSORED BY 

THE SPARTANBURG BRANCH 
AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF UNIVERSITY WOMEN 
SOUTH CAROLINA 


1940: Band & White 


SOUTH CAROLINA STATE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION, 
State-wide Sponsor of the South Carolina Writers’ Project 


FEDERAL WORKS AGENCY 
John M. Carmody, Administrator 


WORK PROJECTS ADMINISTRATION 

F. C. Harrington, Commissioner 
Florence Kerr, Assistant Commissioner 
Lawrence M. Pinckney, State Administrator 


COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 


Copyrighted 1940 by The Spartanburg Branch, American 
Association of University Women 

All rights are reserved, including the rights to reproduce 
this book or parts thereof in any form 


FOREWORD 

This attempt to chronicle A History of Spartanburg County has 
been a labor of pleasure and enthusiasm. The book is not patterned 
on the conventional county history; it deals with individuals, not as 
persons in their own right, but only as figures in the affairs of the city 
or county. To compress into so brief a compass the mass of data 
available and to preserve proper perspective and proportion has been 
difficult. Despite painstaking thought and effort to guard against 
mistakes in fact or in judgment, some, no doubt, have crept in. For 
these, apologies are hereby made. A thousand pages would not hold 
all the data available: anecdotes, characterizations, intimate details, 
circumstantial accounts of battles and enterprises, customs and tra¬ 
ditions of older days and ways. But a book so filled would have to 
be for the few. 

To gather material for this history, the workers in the Spartan¬ 
burg office of the South Carolina Writers’ Project have pored tire¬ 
lessly over manuscript records in the courthouse and the city hall, 
and have enjoyed always the wholehearted cooperation of all officials 
to whom they applied for aid. They have scanned repeatedly the 
files of local papers in local libraries and in the Herald-Journal build¬ 
ing, and have been accorded every facility for making and checking 
transcripts. They have been assiduous in tracing plats and maps, and 
in compiling statistical summaries from census reports and official 
documents. 

No less faithful has been the cooperation of the editorial staff of 
the State office. Four distinct versions of the manuscript for this 
history have been critically evaluated and judged. 

Special thanks and acknowledgments are due from the Spartan¬ 
burg staff to Miss Mary Baugham of Kennedy Library, whose famil¬ 
iarity with local sources is encyclopedic. Many friends have read the 
manuscript in whole or in part, and have been generous with sugges¬ 
tions and with encouragement. Three command particular mention— 
Dr. Frank Dudley Jones of Clinton, Dr. James Patton of Spartan¬ 
burg, and Howard B. Carlisle, Esq., of Spartanburg. All of these 
have given the entire manuscript careful and constructive criticism. 
Mr. Carlisle, indeed, has been almost a collaborator, so unflagging 
has been his interest and so valuable his assistance. 

The members of the Spartanburg Branch, American Association 


of University Women, who have demonstrated their faith in this work 
and in the civic spirit of their fellow-citizens by assuming the respon¬ 
sibility of publishing it, have won a claim to especial gratitude. This 
feeling extends to the members of the county delegation who supported 
the judgment of the University Women by underwriting the financial 
responsibility involved in the publication of a county history. 

This book is so short, so simple, so clear that nobody could find 
reading it burdensome. If the reading of this history should have 
on readers the same effect that its preparation has had on the staff of 
writers, no one will lay it down without having come to love and 
understand Spartanburg County better. 

Fronde Kennedy, 

Supervisor, Spartanburg Unit 
South Carolina Writers’ Project. 

Spartanburg, S. C., July 22, 1940. 


COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 


RECEIVED 

DEC 2 3 1940 

COPYRIGHT OFFICE 


CONTENTS 


Chapter Page 

Foreword___ 5 

I. Blockhouses and Settlements_ 11 

II. Spartans in the Revolutionary Struggle. 21 

III. The Making of Spartan County_ 33 

IV. Spartan District, 1800-1825. 43 

V. The Courthouse Village. 54 

VI. The Old Iron District._ 66 

VII. Looms and Spindles. 73 

. VIII. Doctrines and Dogmas. 82 

IX. Schools and Learning.. 92 

X. The Prosperous Fifties_____ 104 

XI. Social Life in the Old Days_ 117 

XII. Secession and War Years_ 124 

XIII. Political Cross-Currents—1865-1868. 140 

XIV. The Union League and the Ku Klux Klan... 149 

XV. The Banner District of Democracy, 1868-1876.. 158 

XVI. Rails and Expansion_ 166 

XVII. Social Life During Reconstruction__ 175 

XVIII. Plows and Progress.. 183 

XIX. The Tillman Era.. 192 

XX. “Spartanburg, City of Success”__.,_ 204 

XXI. Education and the Arts-... 220 

XXII. Preparations For War_ 233 

XXIII. The Twenty-Seventh Division at Camp Wads¬ 
worth_ 242 

XXIV. The Year 1918_ 252 

XXV. Demobilizations and Memories.. 259 

XXVI. These Latter Days-- 273 

Bibliography_ 286 

Index- 297 































ILLUSTRATIONS 

A Map of Spartanburgh District in 1825—Reproduced from Mills’s 
Atlas with insets: A Plat of Spartanburgh Village in 1802—Col¬ 
onial and Revolutionary Sites . Front End 

A Map of Spartanburg County in 1925—Drawn for the Chamber of 

Commerce of Spartanburg. Back End 

Following 

Page 

Samuel Noblit’s Notebooks. 32 

Limestone Springs Hotel. 48 

Glenn Springs Hotel. 64 

The Walker House. 64 

The Palmetto House. 64 

An Antebellum Home. 80 

An Antebellum Church. 80 

Three Historic Mills..—. 80 

The Reidville Female College. 96 

The State School for the Deaf and the Blind. 96 

Wofford College . 112 

The Baptist Church of the Fifties... 112 

At Airline Junction... 176 

The Merchants Hotel.—— 176 

Morgan Square in 1884. 208 

The Morgan Rifles in 1887._. 208 

Fire-Fighters of the Eighties. 208 

Policemen of the Eighties. 208 

The Second Jail of Spartanburg County. 208 

City Hall of Spartanburg... 208 

The Kennedy Free Library. 224 

Converse College . 224 

Textile Institute .-. 224 

Camp Wadsworth Scenes. 256 

City of Spartanburg in 1931. 272 

Acknowledgment: The use of these cuts has been made possible through 
the courtesy of the Spartanburg Herald-Journal and the Spartanburg Chamber 
of Commerce. 











































CHAPTER ONE 

Blockhouses and Settlements 


The Name of Spartanburg alone among the forty-six counties 

the County 0 f Carolina bears a name based on the 

character of its settlers. No account exists of the circumstances at¬ 
tending the selection of this name. It appears among the records for 
the first time in a letter signed John Thomas, and bearing the head¬ 
ing, Spartan Regiment, September 11, 1775. Three weeks earlier, 
on August 21, 1775, William Henry Drayton of the Council of 
Safety wrote an official report of a meeting held that day on Law¬ 
son’s Fork. According to tradition this meeting took place at Wof¬ 
ford’s Iron Works (now Glendale). Drayton stated that here he had 
found, for the first time during his tour of the back country, a strong 
sentiment for the liberty cause; that he had advised the men present 
to organize themselves into companies and to form a regiment of 
their own, independent of Colonel Fletchall, since he seemed de¬ 
termined to adhere to the King’s party. Whether Drayton also sug¬ 
gested a name for the regiment is entirely a matter of surmise. 
Some have thought he did. On the other hand, there were gentlemen 
in the regiment whose education had made them as familiar as was 
Drayton with ancient history, and who were as capable as he was of 
realizing the appropriateness of the epithet “Spartan” to men so 
situated. The name of the regiment was soon extended to the district. 

Conditions of Many of the men who made up the Spartan 

Settlement Regiment had poured down the valley trails from 

Pennsylvania and Virginia after the French and Indian War, eager 
to secure grants in the rich Piedmont of Carolina. The wilderness 
spread itself before them—ready to be subdued and enjoyed. The 
map of Spartanburg County today preserves proof of how abundant 
were the animals whose skins were the chief wealth of the Cherokees 
and of the first white men who traded and settled in this section. 
Many streams bear the names of animals which once drank from 
them and inhabited their banks. There are in the county today creeks 
named Wolf, Bear, Buck, Elk, Buffalo, and Beaverdam. Upon read¬ 
ing that in one season a man trapped twenty beavers on Fair forest 
Creek one easily understands why two Spartanburg County creeks 
to this day bear the name Beaverdam. The animal called a tiger by 
the early settlers was a species of panther, and was the most dreaded 

11 


12 


A History of Spartanburg County 


of all the wild creatures. It seems only logical that the three branches 
of the Tyger River should perpetuate its name. Herds of buffalo 
were seen by all the early explorers of this area. The tradition 
handed down from them says that the herds of buffalo had regular 
“runs” through the forests and tall grass, that they followed the 
sprouting of the young canes in spring to graze on the tender shoots, 
and that their paths led across the fords of the streams. According 
to this tradition, the Indians and Indian traders took over and de¬ 
veloped into paths the runs of the buffalo. 

Stories have been handed down of the experiences of pioneers 
with wild beasts. As Mrs. Ford sat in the doorway of her log cabin 
near the old Indian field on Enoree River, a panther leaped over her 
shoulder into the cabin, and was shot on the hearth by her husband. 
Near Grindal Shoals on Pacolet River a pioneer hunter was kept in 
a tree all night by a pack of wolves. The first settlers made a prac¬ 
tice of hunting bears in the fall, dressing the skins for robes and 
rugs, and salting the flesh to be used as bacon. 

The settlers lived in tents, or in their covered wagons, until they 
could cut down trees and erect log cabins. Then fields had to be 
cleared and fenced; the Indian trails transformed into wagon roads; 
new roads laid out and put in condition for neighborhood use. The 
streams were not of great service for the transportation of goods 
because they were too swift and rocky and in places shallow. The 
consequence was that horses were invaluable. An “old Indian field” 
on the Enoree River was the scene of annual meetings of men from 
the surrounding region where they “broke” colts, and traded or 
raced horses. On August 25, 1775, William Henry Drayton attended 
a horse race in the Upper District at Duncan’s Creek. 

With no maps and surveys to guide them, the first settlers from 
the Northern colonies followed the old Indian trading paths and 
pushed their way into the fertile valleys of the numerous streams. 
In the early grants, lands were designated as in “the Packolate set¬ 
tlement,” or “the Tygar settlement,” or “on the waters of Fairforest 
Creek,” and so on. Tributary streams soon received names from 
the first settlers on them. Often agents of the landed proprietors 
organized and arranged for companies of immigrants. In the period 
of early settlement the approach to what is now Spartanburg County 
was easier from the Northern colonies than from Charleston. W. L. 
Trenholm wrote of these first settlers: “As these immigrants had 


Blockhouses and Settlements 


13 


come with wagons and teams, there must have been practicable routes 
from the Alleghanies to the Southern slopes of the Saluda Moun¬ 
tains. It was not only more natural for them to maintain intercourse 
with the Northern settlements than with those on the coast, but was 
less difficult, for the whole upper country of South Carolina was a 
wilderness in 1750 until they were settled.” 

Example of an The experiences of an Irish immigrant family, as 

Immigrant Family recorded in the journal of one of its members, 
show how some of those settlers who came by Charles Town got to 
the Up Country. The Chesney family left Ireland August 25, 1772, 
spent seven weeks and three days on the voyage to Charles Town, 
and then spent seven weeks and one day in quarantine because there 
was smallpox on the vessel. The eight-months-old baby died of the 
disease. The Chesney family did not stop in Charles Town; as soon 
as they were released from quarantine, at Pritchard’s shipyard, a 
few miles above the city, they bargained for transportation by wagon 
to the Up Country, and set out for “John Winn’s old place” (now 
Winnsboro). They paid at the rate of one penny per pound for 
hauling. The diary does not indicate how much they brought. 

The oldest of the eight children, Alexander, the writer of the 
diary, was in his seventeenth year, and was apparently his father’s 
mainstay. He went on foot ahead of the wagons, to the home of 
relatives to announce his family’s arrival. These relatives met the 
family at Winn’s, took them to their home, and entertained them 
until they got one hundred acres of land surveyed. On it they built 
a cabin, and cleared some of the land. Then a letter came to them 
from a widowed aunt who resided on Pacolet River, “sixty miles 
higher up in the country,” urging them to settle near her. 

The diarist writes: “I proceeded on foot in a right direction for 
that place, there being no direct road.” He had instructions to call 
at certain homes and obtain, at each, directions how to reach the 
next. He crossed Broad River in a canoe, and forded Pacolet River 
near Grindal Shoals. He was then within five miles of his aunt’s 
home. He was warmly welcomed and records that the greater part 
of the settlers thereabout were relatives. These kinsmen soon found 
a desirable “vacant tract of 400 acres” and he had it surveyed for 
his father. Alexander Chesney recorded that in 1774 he had to go 
in person to Charles Town to “hurry the patent on my father’s lands 
through the office.” 


14 


A History of Spartanburg County 


Explorers, The earliest explorers and traders found no Indian 

Traders, Cowmen villages in the entire area between the Broad and 
Saluda rivers, because it was in the Cherokee hunting grounds. The 
white men were a long time understanding why their settlement on 
what seemed unoccupied ground was so resented by the Indians. The 
viewpoint of the Indians was expressed in a plea made in 1758 by 
the Lower Cherokees to the Governor of Georgia. They begged him 
to persuade the South Carolinians to hold themselves within certain 
bounds because the deer were becoming so scarce the Indians could 
not find food for their wives and children. But the white men pushed 
on. 

Curosity asks who was the first white man to set foot on Spartan¬ 
burg soil; and no exact answer can be given. It seems quite possible, 
however, that it was the Spanish leader Pardo, who in 1567 led an 
expedition from the vicinity of Parris Island to the mountains. Belief 
in this possibility rests on the fact that in the summer of 1934 a 
farmer near Inman plowed up with a tractor a stone bearing every 
evidence of great age and having on it marks clearly made by human 
hands. These marks appear to be the figures 1567 and some sort of 
diagram, indicative of locality or direction. The first settlers of the 
Tyger section heard from Indian traders of a white man who, before 
their coming, had started a mill near Reidville and had been killed by 
Indians; and of another would-be settler, a Baptist preacher named 
Benjamin Peck, who had mysteriously disappeared, leaving as a 
memorial Ben’s Creek, named for him. 

The Indian traders doubtless traversed this area early. It pleases 
the imagination to picture a packhorse train in the 1700’s making its 
way along the Blackstock Road to the Block House, there to exchange 
with the Cherokees calico, beads, fire-water, guns and ammunition, 
for dressed skins and furs. Every driver carried a heavy cowhide 
whip, and all of the horses, ranged in close Indian file, were forced to 
proceed at a brisk trot, as the chief driver commanded, their bells 
jingling and jangling, the horsemen shouting and cursing and crack¬ 
ing their whips menacingly, filling the forest and meadow with shout¬ 
ing and tumult. Sometimes such caravans had as many as twenty 
men and sixty horses. These packtrains usually made about twenty 
miles in a day, setting out soon in the morning, and pausing by mid¬ 
afternoon to make camp on some inviting plain or cane-meadow. 

An Indian trader had to erect for himself a strong blockhouse in 


Blockhouses and Settlements 


15 


which to keep his stores secure. About it were built the cabins and 
sheds required for the use of his family and helpers and live stock. 
Such blockhouses were not unlike the stockaded forts built by the 
Horse Rangers as bases from which they patrolled the Indian Line. 
Quite naturally the location of these strongholds influenced the first 
permanent settlers to select lands near them. Many Indian traders 
profited by their acquaintance with the country to select lands with 
mill sites and fertile soil, and such men became leaders among the 
permanent settlers. 

The cowmen had a part in developing the back country, without 
in the beginning having any intention of establishing permanent settle¬ 
ments. They were here before any grants were made, or any clearings. 
At first nomadic and seasonal, many of them were transformed into 
householders and landowners. The clusters of cowpens and the railed 
enclosures for the cattle were supplemented with sturdier log houses 
for the women and children accompanying the cowmen to the wilds. 
Grain fields, gardens, orchards, trading posts followed; and what 
began as cowpens became settlements. 

Elijah Clark, described as the “Daniel Boone of Spartanburg,” is 
said to have led a large company of settlers in 1755 into the Pacolet 
Valley. A community developed from their settlement about Grindal 
Shoals, and was in what is now Union County, although its fringes 
extended up the river toward “Hurricane Shoals” (now Clifton). 
Clark soon moved on into Georgia and settled there. 

Early The first permanent settlements in what is now Spartan- 

Settlements burg County seem to have been those on the various 
branches of the Tyger River. In 1761 a group of Scotch-Irish Pres¬ 
byterian settlers came from Pennsylvania and chose for themselves 
tracts of ground along the branches of the Tyger. In this party were 
families bearing the names Barry, Moore, Collins, Anderson, Thomp¬ 
son, Vernon, Pearson, Dodd, Jamison, Ray, Penney, McMahon, Mil¬ 
ler, and Nicholls. Some of these names occur in James Jordan’s Fort 
Prince accounts, kept in 1776. Within a few years another group of 
Scotch-Irish came through Charles Town into the Tyger area and took 
up lands mostly on the highlands left unclaimed by the first settlers. 
Among them were families bearing the names Coan, Snoddy, Peden, 
Alexander, Gaston, Morton, and Nesbitt. These two parties soon 
occupied an area nearly twenty miles square. As early as 1765 they 
had selected a conveniently located site and erected on it a log meeting 


16 


A History of Spartanburg County 


house, which they named Nazareth. Nazareth Church, formally or¬ 
ganized in 1772, was the first permanent organization in the county. 
About it cluster enough associations to fill a volume. Its people have 
cherished its history, and made of it a shrine of hallowed memories. 

The Earle family immigrated to the North Pacolet region in the 
decade of 1760 and established a strong settlement, which came to be 
called Earlesville. Earle’s Fort, their chief stronghold against the 
Indians, and later the Tories, was in North Carolina, just across the 
State line. This family sent vigorous pioneers into Greenville, Pickens, 
and Anderson counties, South Carolina, and Rutherford and Polk 
counties, North Carolina, and had an important part in the making of 
Spartanburg County. Bayliss Earle was one of the first County Com¬ 
missioners. The Hamptons, Jacksons, Hannons, and Princes were 
other influential families in the North Pacolet area. 

Companies of Virginia Baptists, angered by the religious intoler¬ 
ance of which they were victims, and imbued with the doctrines of 
Thomas Jefferson, streamed along with the immigrant tide into South 
Carolina. Some of them settled in the Fairforest basin and built a log 
meeting house, tradition says in 1765, which became Friendship 
Church. This meeting house was an “arm” of Fairforest Baptist 
Church (in the Union County area), which was the first church of its 
denomination in the Up Country. This church seems to have had 
other arms, as mission stations were called. The most historic Bap¬ 
tist church in Spartanburg County is Bethel at Woodruff, which has 
been traced back to its origin in 1771 as an arm of Fairforest. This 
arm withered during the Revolution, and was reorganized before 1787 
as “the Church of Christ on Jamey’s Creek.” Later this church was 
moved and became known, first as Woodruff’s Meeting House, and 
finally as Bethel Church. In the settlement about Boiling Springs, 
it is believed, Fairforest had an arm in 1772. 

The militia organization of South Carolina at the outbreak of the 
Revolution included twelve regiments. The men from the total area 
between the Broad and Saluda rivers were in the Upper Saluda Regi¬ 
ment, which was under the command of Colonel Thomas Fletchall. 
Many of the officers and men in his regiment had fought in the French 
and Indian War and in the Indian Wars on the Carolina frontier in 
1760 and 1761. Numbers of them, no doubt, had helped to erect the 
string of forts along the Indian Line: Earle’s Fort, the Block House, 


Blockhouses and Settlements 


17 


Gowan’s Fort, Prince’s Fort, Jamison’s Fort, Wood’s Fort, Nicholls’ 
Fort, Blackstock’s Fort. 

There is reason to believe that the strongest of these blockhouses 
was Fort Prince. Records of grants show that the region about it 
was well settled before the Revolution. The account book kept in 
Fort Prince shows how all of these forts were operated in periods of 
Indian warfare. It is the only such book locally preserved, and it 
proves that the country was pretty well settled and that there was 
already much agricultural development by 1775; for the inhabitants 
were selling to the fort commissary, James Jordan, flour, tobacco, 
wheat, steers, tallow, butter, and Indian corn, in considerable quan¬ 
tities. The following names of persons who made sales to the fort 
appear in Jordan’s account: Alexander Rea, Francis Dods, Samuel 
Brice, James Miller, Alexander Vernon, Nathaniel Miller, John 
Timons, George Salmon, John McElkey (McElhenny), Thomas 
Prince, Francis Prince, John Lander, Moses Lander, William Feals, 
Thomas Barnett, the widow Barnett, Mrs. McCarter, Mrs. Samons, 
John McCarter, Robert Lusk, James Rytchey, William Readman. 
Only four of these people made their marks instead of signing their 
names and all those signing thus traded for small amounts. This may 
be taken to indicate that the people of these communities had educa¬ 
tion. 

One entry in the accounts of James Jordan shows him as having 
received from “Captain John Gowins, Three Bills Cons, to discharge 
a debt to Heart Due in Charles Town.” The amount was one hundred 
six pounds, fifteen shillings. Possibly this John Gowins commanded 
at the fort a few miles distant from Fort Prince, on the Indian Line, 
mentioned often in Revolutionary stories as Gowan’s Fort, which was 
the nucleus of what was to become the flourishing Gowansville com¬ 
munity. This old Gowan’s Fort, local tradition says, was put in repair 
and used as a stronghold by deserters during the Civil War. When 
the World War soldiers were in training, the range for their artillery 
practice included the site of Gowan’s Fort. 

Development Men were busy, from their arrival, in carrying on 
and Expansion trade. They raised cattle and sold them on the hoof 
in Charles Town or Augusta or Philadelphia. They grew tobacco, 
and packed it into hogsheads to protect it from the weather on its way 
to market. To these hogsheads shafts were attached, and horses then 
rolled them to market over the wretched roads. Wagons were used 


20 


A History of Spartanburg County 


to a document by which they solemnly bound themselves “to associate 
in the defense of South Carolina against every foe and to hold all those 
persons inimical to the liberties of the colonies who shall refuse to 
subscribe this association.” The Congress, June 14, 1775, appointed 
a Council of Safety “with power to do whatever the safety of the 
State demanded,” and in July this Council sent its representatives into 
the Up Country to explain the revolutionary movement to the people 
and appeal to them to set their signatures to the “Association.” The 
response of the population to this appeal drew the inhabitants of the 
back country into a common struggle with the rest of the State and 
marked an epoch in their history. 


CHAPTER TWO 


Spartans in the Revolutionary Struggle 

Formation of the The commissioners sent into the Upper District by 
Spartan Regiment t h e Council of Safety were William Henry Dray¬ 
ton and William Tennent; and, at first, they met with little encourage¬ 
ment. Many of the back-country settlers spoke out boldly, saying 
they preferred the rule of the King to that of the “Charles Town 
gentlemen” who had been reluctant to grant them courts and offices 
in their own section. Colonel Fletchall, in command, under the Royal 
government, of the Upper Saluda regiment, which comprised the area 
of the present counties of Spartanburg, Cherokee, Union, and parts 
of Newberry and Laurens, was firm in refusing to sign the document 
pressed on him by Drayton and Tennent, declaring that he “would 
never take up arms against the King or his countrymen, and that the 
proceedings of the Congress at Philadelphia were impolitic, dis¬ 
respectful, and irritating to the King.” Fletchall and some of his 
officers, to counteract the “Association,” drew up a paper pledging 
loyalty to the King, and to this document fifteen hundred signatures 
were affixed. 

Although most of the men of Fletchall’s regiment refused to sign 
the association, there were some who did sign it. Of these signers 
the Spartan Regiment was formed within Fletchall’s territory, with 
Colonel John Thomas, Sr., at its head. The origin of the regiment 
may probably be traced to the meeting held by Drayton at Wofford’s 
Iron Works on August 21, 1775; for on that date he reported to the 
Council of Safety that he had advised such a step. He mentioned that 
he had on this occasion barbecued a beef. This was doubtless the 
first, but by no means the last political barbecue held in Spartanburg 
County. 

Meetings were held at several other places in the Upper District. 
On August 23, at “an old Indian field” on the Enoree River, a regular 
muster ground which later was to be the scene of the Battle of Mus- 
grove’s Mill, Drayton and Tennent held an important meeting. In 
August and September the Spartan Regiment was being organized 
and was then reported as ready for service. Though many men had 
to be left at home to protect the frontier, two hundred were ready to 
march. 


21 


22 


A History of Spartanburg County 


The Regiment The first service rendered by the Spartan Regiment 
m Action was j ts participation under Colonel Richard Richard¬ 

son in his campaign against the Loyalist forces. Colonel Thomas and 
his two hundred Spartans reported to Richardson at the Congarees, 
December 2, 1775. They bore their share in the campaign that ended 
December 24 with the engagement at the Great Cane Brake beyond the 
Indian Line, in what is now Greenville County. 

The Battle of the Great Cane Brake was fought by men who had 
not a tent or a wagon, or other shelter than their saddle blankets. Its 
object was to capture the King’s men, who had retreated beyond the 
Indian Line and were trying to induce the Cherokees to join them. 
The Americans had their enemy surrounded almost before their own 
approach was discovered. About twenty-five of the King’s men 
escaped, five or six were killed, and a hundred captured. During this 
struggle snow began to fall and continued thirty hours, covering the 
ground to a depth of two feet. On Christmas Day the Americans 
made their way from this scene to rejoin Colonel Williamson. They 
called this expedition “The Snow Campaign,” and many a Revo¬ 
lutionary soldier proudly included in his record a statement that he 
was “at the Snow Camps.” 

From the beginning of the factional disputes, the Indians on the 
border had been a problem. Each side accused the other of seeking 
the Cherokee alliance in the quarrel; and each side professed abhor¬ 
rence of the idea of white men’s encouraging Indians to attack the 
settlements. The Indian agents, Captain John Stuart and his deputy, 
Alexander Cameron, were suspected by the Council of Safety of at¬ 
tempting to arouse the Indians against the liberty men, but the agents 
disclaimed the charges. The Council sent a party among the Chero¬ 
kees to seize Captain Stuart. This party was attacked by the Indians, 
its leader barely escaping with his life. 

On July 1, 1776, the Cherokees heard that a British fleet was in 
Charles Town harbor. Immediately they swept over the frontier, 
burning homes and massacring the inhabitants. Spartans suffered 
severely all along the Indian Line. The Hites, Hamptons, Fords, 
Hannons, Bishops, Thompsons, Andersons, and Millers were among 
the families attacked. People crowded into the forts. Several hun¬ 
dred men, women, and children along the entire Indian frontier were 
slaughtered before Major Andrew Williamson was able to get together 
a force strong enough to attempt punishment. From the middle of 


Spartans in the Revolutionary Struggle 


23 


July until about the middle of October he swept through the Cherokee 
towns, in cooperation with militia from North Carolina and Virginia. 

Some of the Spartans were with Williamson on this campaign 
against the Cherokees, and in its course the Spartan Regiment was 
ordered by Williamson to destroy the stronghold of Richard Pearis, 
because it was an Indian and Tory base. This stockade was where 
the city of Greenville now stands, and Pearis’s lands included Paris 
Mountain—which, in corrupted form, preserves his name. 

Even though the Cherokees were subdued, the frontiers were not 
considered safe. There were some avowed Tories; and many non- 
combatants were suspected of being Tories at heart. The Revolu¬ 
tionists, therefore, manned the frontier forts and stockades and kept 
rangers and scouts in active service along the Indian Line. 

The Second In the spring of 1778 the Spartan Regiment was 

Spartan Regiment divided. The part known as the Spartan Regi¬ 
ment continued under the command of Colonel John Thomas; Major 
Brandon was raised to the rank of colonel and given command of the 
newly-formed Second Spartan Regiment. The indications are that 
Thomas and his men remained in the home area, presumably manning 
the forts and doing scout duty; and Brandon’s regiment, made up 
largely of men from the less exposed areas, vounteered for service in 
the campaigns elsewhere. In 1778 Major Andrew Williamson, who 
had commanded the expedition against the Cherokees, was appointed 
brigadier general of the newly-formed Upper Brigade of South Caro¬ 
lina Militia. Colonel Brandon and the Second Spartan Regiment went 
with Williamson that year on an expedition against the Florida 
Loyalists. In the winter of 1779-1780, Colonels James Steen and 
Thomas Brandon were both participants in the defense of Charles 
Town, each in command of men from the Upper District. 

Collapse The fall of Charles Town, May 1780, and the consequent 
in 1780 movement of the British to occupy the entire State, brought 
about a complete change in local conditions. The Upper District had 
not been touched by actual warfare since the Indian massacre of 1776; 
but it was now to become one of the principal arenas of the struggle. 

Upon the fall of Charles Town, Colonel John Thomas accepted 
final defeat as inevitable and made a submission to the conquerors, 
hoping thus to insure protection of the families and property of his 
men and himself. In following this course he did only what many 


24 


A History of Spartanburg County 


of his fellow-officers, including Sumter and Pickens, did. The officer 
at Ninety-Six, in charge of receiving submissions from Americans, 
was the very Richard Pearis whose property had been destroyed 
by the Spartan Regiment under Colonel Thomas, and it was probably 
to Pearis that Thomas made his “submission.” 

The Dark When these Americans surrendered, they were assured 
Summer the s t a f- us G f prisoners of war on parole. But, June 3, 
1780, Sir Henry Clinton, the British conqueror of Charles Town, 
issued a proclamation that all those inhabitants who refused active 
allegiance to the British should, after June 20, be treated as enemies 
and rebels. Confident that the State was conquered, Clinton then 
sailed away to New York to fight Washington. The ensuing summer 
has been well named “The Dark Summer.” 

Clinton, before leaving Charles Town, sent three forces inland to 
occupy Augusta, Ninety-Six, and Camden. Lieutenant Colonel Tarle- 
ton was dispatched in pursuit of Lieutenant Colonel Buford’s Virginia 
troops, which had been on the way to Charles Town and had turned 
back toward home upon hearing of the surrender. Overtaking Buford 
at Waxhaws, May 29, Tarleton’s troops savagely butchered the Vir¬ 
ginians after they had thrown down their arms. The news of this 
occurrence sent a wave of anger through the Southern area, and had 
much influence in bringing on the renewal of conflict. 

Another procedure of the British that inflamed the inhabitants to 
fury was the burning of homes and the appropriating of property. 
But, most insulting of all, and in direct violation of the terms of sur¬ 
render, was the British demand that those revolutionists who had sur¬ 
rendered and “taken protection” now serve in the British forces which 
were attempting to conquer any Americans still in arms. Many 
Americans, saying that this violation of the terms released them from 
their paroles, resumed arms. Colonel John Thomas did this, and was 
captured and imprisoned at Ninety-Six. Before seizing him, a band 
of Tories, led by Patrick Moore, plundered his place and drove off 
his slaves and cattle. 

Sir Henry Clinton wrote, June 4: “There are few men in South 
Carolina who are not either our prisoners or in arms with us.” But 
things were not to be as easy for the British as Clinton anticipated, 
for, on that same June 4, Colonels Thomas Brandon, John Thomas, 
Jr., and Janies Lyles held a conference and agreed to assemble their 
troops and form a recruiting camp near Fairforest Creek in the Upper 


Spartans in the Revolutionary Struggle 


25 


or Spartan District. The Spartans still held, hidden safely, some of 
the powder furnished Colonel Thomas, Sr., by Drayton and Rutledge 
in 1776. Brandon’s first step, June 8, 1780, was to secure and secrete 
this powder. 

Meanwhile the Loyalists were flocking to the British allegiance. 
Lieutenant Colonel Patrick Ferguson, who had been appointed by 
Colonel Balfour to enroll and train Loyalist troops and to act against 
the revolutionists who refused to swear allegiance to the British, was 
very active and successful. Early in June a group of Ferguson’s 
Tories surprised Brandon’s men and defeated them, securing, how¬ 
ever, only a small part of the powder. 

The Spartan Regi- The Whigs held a gathering at Bullock’s Creek 
ment Reorganized Church in York, June 12, 1780, rallying here 
after Brandon’s defeat. To these bewildered men—who were as 
sheep without a shepherd—John Thomas, Jr., made an inspiring ap¬ 
peal, whereupon all agreed to continue resistance. The Colonel of 
the Spartan Regiment, John Thomas, had capitulated in May; his son, 
John Thomas, Jr., was now made Colonel by the men who were de¬ 
termined not to stop fighting. Therefore, they made their way to 
Sumter’s camp and placed themselves under his command, taking to 
him the powder they had saved. This ammunition was used in the 
engagements which soon followed—Huck’s defeat, July 12; Rocky 
Mount, July 30; and Hanging Rock, August 7. These fights some¬ 
what turned the tables on Ferguson, for after them, in Tarleton’s own 
words, men “flocked from all parts of South Carolina” to join Sum¬ 
ter. The British realized that the war was not ended, and that much 
more had to be done by them than reorganizing a British government 
in a conquered Up Country, and setting up camps in which to receive 
pledges of allegiance. 

Early in July the British, under Ferguson’s direction, had seized 
the plantation of Colonel James Williams of the Little River Regi¬ 
ment, and, moving into the Upper District, had formed a camp near 
the present-day Union. They marched and counter-marched through 
the surrounding country, plundering the Whig inhabitants and exact¬ 
ing submissions from waverers who hastened to prove their zeal as 
they saw the British apparently in power. 

The weeks that followed were incredibly troubled ones in the 
Upper District. During the years from 1777 to 1780, life there had 
gone on peacefully enough. New settlers had moved in; lands had 


26 


A History of Spartanburg County 


been bought and sold; fields had been cleared and planted; houses 
and mills had been erected. Wagon trade with Charles Town had 
been brisk. Soldiers had come and gone between their homes and the 
frontier forts, or had done what they called “tours of duty” with the 
forces about Augusta, Savannah, or Charles Town. 

The Upper District The resolution made by Thomas, Brandon, and 
a Battleground Lyles, June 4, was the precursor of local skirm¬ 
ishing. From that time on the Upper District was a battleground. 
The state of affairs was almost that of civil war; neighbor arrayed 
against neighbor. Within the area occurred many small engagements, 
all designed to check and, if possible, destroy Colonel Patrick Fer¬ 
guson. Lord Cornwallis, August 20, 1780, reported to the home gov¬ 
ernment that Ferguson, as inspector general of the militia for the 
District of Ninety-Six, had organized “seven battalions of militia of 
about 4,000 men, well affected to the British government, which were 
so regulated that they could with ease furnish fifteen hundred men at a 
short notice for the defense of the frontier or any other service.” On 
both sides the frontiersmen had organized themselves into three 
groups—one for active fighting, one for patrolling and manning the 
forts, and one to plant crops and serve as home guards. 

There were no Continental troops in the State to oppose Ferguson, 
but the partisans and volunteer militia were equal to the occasion. 
Their activities in one week of July have thus been summed up: 
“They had risen and attacked the British outposts along the whole 
line in what are now the counties of Chester, York, and Spartanburg. 
There had been engagements upon four successive nights, in each of 
which the Whigs had been victorious. At Williamson’s and Bratton’s 
plantations in York they had attacked and destroyed Huck and his 
party on the 12th of July. Colonel John Thomas, Jr., had defeated 
the attack made upon his camp at Cedar Spring in Spartanburg on 
the night of the 13th. Then Colonel Jones had surprised the Loyalists 
at Gowen’s Old Fort near the South Pacolet in the same county on 
the night of the 14th; and finally the attack of Dunlap on McDowell’s 
camp on the night of the 15th had been avenged by Hampton on the 
morning of the 16th. Of these engagements, it is true, none could be 
described as a great battle, but the British had, in less than a week, 
lost more than a hundred men in killed and wounded, while the loss 
of the Americans had not mounted to half that number.” 

Fort Thicketty, in what is now Cherokee County, had been built 


Spartans in the Revolutionary Struggle 


27 


by Patrick Moore and made a Tory stronghold from which bands 
sallied forth to plunder the surrounding country. It was captured by 
the Whigs, July 30, 1780—a victory of especial value for two reasons: 
it brought relief to a harassed population, and the capture of the fort 
threw into the hands of the Americans valuable supplies of arms and 
ammunition. All of these small but important engagements occurred 
in July 1780. 

Cedar Spring August was to bring larger activities. The first 
and Wofford’* clash between the main forces under Colonel Charles 
Iron Works McDowell and Colonel Patrick Ferguson came in 
what has been sometimes called the Second Battle of Cedar Spring, 
and sometimes the Battle of Wofford’s Iron Works. It was fought 
August 8, both sides claiming the victory. The moral victory was 
all on the American side, however, because the Americans were able 
by retiring to a new position to check the attack of Ferguson’s men. 

Battle of The victory of the Americans at Musgrove’s Mill, 

Musgrove’* Mill August 19, marked a definite turn of the tide—even 
though on the preceding day the Continental Army under General 
Horatio Gates had been disgracefully routed near Camden. The de¬ 
feat of Gates did not impair the determination of the partisans to drive 
the British and the Loyalists from their State. Few battles of the 
Revolution surpassed in strategic importance the small battle of Mus¬ 
grove’s Mill. It was participated in by Carolinians, Georgians, and 
Tennesseans on the American side, opposed by British Regulars and 
American Loyalists from both Carolinas, New York, and New Jersey. 
This engagement was one of the turning points of the war, being 
fought by about two hundred Americans against a British force of 
between four and five hundred. The American loss was thirteen, that 
of the British was seventy captured and one hundred fifty-three 
wounded or killed. 

The Americans, led by Colonels James Williams, Elijah Clarke, 
and Isaac Shelby, left Smith’s Ford on Broad River in the afternoon 
of August 18, and rode all night across country—mostly through the 
woods and by-paths, because they knew Ferguson was near. They 
reached the muster ground near Musgrove's Mill about dawn and 
made brilliant plans for battle. Hastily throwing up breastworks of 
logs and brush, they drew the British into an ambush and before 
eight o’clock in the morning, had won their fight. Then, while they 
debated whether to proceed at once against Ninety-Six, they had 


28 


A History of Spartanburg County 


news of Gate’s disastrous defeat and of the approach of fresh British 
troops. 

The Ride to At once they distributed the prisoners and started 

Hillsboro toward North Carolina, under the command of 

Colonel James Williams. They rode the rest of the day, all night, and 
part of the next day, stopping only to feed or water their horses, sleep¬ 
ing in the saddle, and eating only the peaches and raw corn they 
gathered from the wayside fields or orchards. In all, within forty- 
eight hours, they traveled in the August heat more than one hundred 
miles over rough, wild country, fought a battle, and for sixty miles 
of their ride escorted seventy prisoners. These prisoners they de¬ 
livered to Governor John Rutledge at Hillsboro, N. C. So swollen 
were their faces from the strain that many of the men were not 
recognized by their friends at Hillsboro. Governor Rutledge, de¬ 
lighted with Williams’ report of the battle at Musgrove’s Mill, and 
with the seventy prisoners, mostly British, he delivered, gave Williams 
a commission as brigadier general. Thus he expressed the delight of 
a refugee governor, the guest of Governor Nash of North Carolina. 

Dissensions Among By the men who flocked to him in July, Sumter 
the Americans had been chosen general, and for a time Williams 

had served with him; but when Sumter planned to go to North Caro¬ 
lina, Williams and a large body of men who agreed with him that 
they should attack the British at Ninety-Six, turned in that direction 
and formed a camp at Smith’s Ford in the Upper District, on Broad 
River. With Williams went Brandon and many of the Spartans, but 
John Thomas, Jr., and his regiment seem to have stuck to Sumter. 
Williams, learning of the concerted movement to check Ferguson, and 
that men from over the mountain would cooperate, rejoined the 
Americans then encamped at Cowpens, the place agreed upon as a 
rendezvous, and presented his commission. He demanded that Sum¬ 
ter and his men yield him their obedience, but they refused. A group 
of five of Sumter’s officers—one of them Colonel John Thomas, Jr.,— 
went to Governor Rutledge to protest Williams’ commission. It 
makes a sad story, this quarrel between Sumter and Williams. There 
were Spartans on each side in it; but after the death of Williams at 
Kings Mountain, all of them united in following Sumter. The regi¬ 
ment commanded by John Thomas, Jr., retained the name Spartan 
Regiment. At this period Brandon’s Regiment was often called the 
Fairforest Regiment, from the fact that most of its men lived in the 


Spartans in the Revolutionary Struggle 29 

Fairforest basin. Both regiments were active at Kings Mountain, 
October 7, 1780. 

Fighting in the During all of this time, Ferguson’s men had been 
Fairforest Region here an( j there j n the Upper District, or just over 
the North Carolina border from it, and there had been numerous 
skirmishes. Chesney recorded in his Journal that “scarcely a day 
passed without some fighting” during the summer of 1780. The 
region about Fairforest Shoals, in the lower part of the Upper District, 
was for nearly a year the scene of frequent skirmishes and encamp¬ 
ments. Colonel Brandon and Major Mcjunkin and their men played 
an important part in the battle at Blackstock’s Ford, November 20, 
1780. This battle was fought just where the Blackstock Road crossed 
Tyger River. The tobacco barn and forted house of an Indian trader 
named Blackstock served as headquarters for the Americans under 
Sumter, who were attacked here by Tarleton with a strong force. 
Sumter repulsed Tarleton, but during the night he slipped away, 
severely wounded. He stopped for a day or two of rest at Wofford's 
Iron Works, and then proceeded to a more secure refuge near the 
North Carolina line. 

The Battle By far the most brilliant and most important Revolu- 
of Cowpens tionary engagement fought on the soil of the Upper 
District was the Battle of Cowpens, January 17, 1781. Indeed, 
judged from the standpoint of military strategy and of consequences, 
this was one of the outstanding battles of the entire Revolution, deal¬ 
ing the death blow to Tarleton’s career and ending serious fighting 
on the soil of the Upper District. In every stage of the battle, Spar¬ 
tans had heavy responsibilities as scouts, skirmishers, commissary 
officers, and combatants. A volume could be filled with personal 
anecdotes concerning Cowpens. Brandon’s part was especially gallant. 

Tory Bands and Warfare began in this district in 1776 with Indian 
Their Outrages an d T or y attacks. This menace overhung the area 
throughout the struggle, keeping always a large part of the militia at 
home to hold it in check; and, after the organized British forces had 
passed through the Upper District for the last time, the inhabitants 
of Revolutionary sympathies suffered inroads and outrages from bands 
of Tories and Indians. Early in the year 1781 the Loyalists and 
Whigs of the Up Country agreed upon a truce so that the crops could 
be cultivated for the ensuing summer; for they realized both sides 


30 


A History of Spartanburg County 


must eat. But bands of violent men disregarded this truce, their ac¬ 
tivities possibly stimulated by news of renewed efforts by the British 
to reestablish their hold on the State. “Bloody Bill” Cunningham 
and “Bloody” Bates were the outstanding leaders of Tory bands 
which dashed here and there throughout Ninety-Six District, leaving 
behind them death, fire, and desolation. 

What the people of the Upper District endured was well sum¬ 
marized by the Reverend George Howe, in the course of his “Cen¬ 
tennial Discourse,” at Nazareth Church, September 14, 1861: 

The most bloody foes your fathers had were neighbors reared 
with them, acquainted with all their ways, and more unforgiving 
than those who had crossed the ocean to fight us. Your soil was 
the camping ground of the friendly and hostile forces, resounding 
under the hoofs both of Washington’s and Tarleton’s dragoons, 
and wet with the blood of your kindred and their foes. 

Through the diligence and labor of your pastor, we have been 
able to learn the story of the “Plundering Scout,” who passed 
through these neighborhoods some eighty-four years ago, taking 
everything that could be of value to them; horses, cattle, beds, and 
bedding; hanging one aged man in his own gate-way, and hack¬ 
ing another with their broad swords. And of the “Bloody Scout,” 
of which “Bloody Bill” Cunningham was the presiding genius, 
who came after, like Death on the pale horse, and Hell following; 
of their killing the sick man (Captain Steadman) in his bed; of 
their hacking the boy, John Caldwell, in pieces; of their killing 
John and James Wood, and the last, notwithstanding his wife’s 
entreaties; and of the death of John Snoddy at their bloody 
hands .... 

We have read of the bravery of your men—of Major David 
Anderson, who fought at Ninety-Six, at the siege of Charleston, at 
Eutaw Springs, and at Augusta; of Captain Andrew Barry, who 
met the foe at Musgrove’s Mill and the Cowpens; of Captain John 
Collins, who fought on many fields, both in Carolina and Georgia. 

We have read of Colonel Thomas, of Fairforest, who com¬ 
manded the Spartan Regiment till the fall of Charleston, three 
of whose sons watered the tree of liberty with their own blood, and 
whose sons-in-law held commissions in the war. Of William 
Kennedy, Samuel Mcjunkin, Major Joseph Mcjunkin, General 
Thomas Brandon, Captain William Savage, Colonel Hughes, and 
Major Otterson, in the old Brown’s Creek Church below, who with 
one other man, captured thirty of Tarleton’s cavalry on their re¬ 
treat from Cowpens; and of Samuel Clowney, of Fairforest, who, 
with his negro man, captured four of the enemy. 

We have read of the brave women of the Revolution—among 


Spartans in the: Revolutionary Struggle; 31 

them, of Mrs. Thomas, of Fairforest, and her ride of fifty miles, 
from Ninety-Six, where her husband was prisoner, to Cedar 
Springs, to warn her neighbors and children there of a threatened 
attack, and of the heroic defense of her house by Culbertson, her 
son-in-law, who fired on the large band of attacking Tories, while 
she, her daughters, and her son Willie, loaded; of Mrs. Dillard, 
and her arrival on a gallop, to warn the camp of Colonel Clarke, 
at Green Spring on Lawson’s Fork, after she had prepared supper 
for the Tory band, led by Ferguson and Dunlap; of Dicey Lang¬ 
ston, who forded the Tyger River at the dead hour of the night, the 
waters reaching to her neck, floundering on, in bewilderment at 
times, to warn the settlement, where her brother lived, of the 
“Bloody Scout”; of Ann Hamilton, who seized a Tory that was 
firing her house, by his collar, and hurled him down the stairs. 

“Bloody Bill” Cunningham and his “Bloody Scout” ended their 
career of plunder and murder in the Upper District by burning 
Wofford’s Iron Works in November 1781. Soon after this Cunning¬ 
ham fled to Florida and remained there. 

As though by preconcerted arrangement, “Bloody Bates” led a 
horde of Indians and Tories through the frontier section about 
Go wan’s Fort, at the same time that Cunningham was sweeping 
through the lower settlements. Bates, in November 1781, captured 
Gowan’s Fort, in which many of the terrified inhabitants had found 
refuge. Few of the men, women, and children who threw themselves 
upon his mercy escaped; those who did were scalped or otherwise 
mutilated. One victim to escape this barbarous slaughter was Mrs. 
Abner Thompson, of Greenville, South Carolina, who lived fifty years 
afterwards, although she had been scalped and left for dead. 

Many traditions of the outrages perpetrated by Bates, and of his 
subsequent course as a horse thief, have come down. A particularly 
romantic story describes how one of his near-victims, a young Motley, 
of Upper Spartanburg County, hearing he was in the jail at Green¬ 
ville, led a body of neighbors, took Bates from the sheriff, and hanged 
him before the courthouse—with the approval of the community. The 
body was taken from the gallows and buried on the spot. There it 
lies to this day—covered by the Greenville post office. 

Samuel Earle, during 1782-1783, commanded what was probably 
the last body of armed troops in Upper South Carolina, the South 
Carolina Rangers. Earle had been commissioned by General Andrew 
Pickens to raise this body of mounted men and to use it in policing the 
frontier. Samuel Earle once told B. F. Perry that at the close of the 


32 


A History of Spartanburg County 


Revolution he was personally acquainted with every settler above the 
Congarees. 

Characterization of The circumstances under which they lived and 
the Spartan Regiment f OU ght determined the character of the partisan 
bands of the Upper District who fought for independence. They had 
a loose, flexible organization, chose their own officers, decided by 
mutual agreement on their activities, fought hard and boldly when 
they felt they had a chance of winning, and disappeared with speed 
when they felt sure of impending defeat. They refused to be con¬ 
fined to prolonged training in camp, and when scouts reported no 
enemy near, claimed the right to go home and attend to their domestic 
concerns, hurrying back to the scene of action if they got word they 
were needed. The tale has come down that, when Morgan realized 
he must fight Tarleton, he sent out couriers to round up his forces. 
Captain Andrew Barry’s wife, Kate, tied little Katie to the bedpost, 
mounted her horse and rode through part of her husband’s beat, giving 
the call to arms. If these partisan volunteers disapproved the tactics 
or objectives of a leader, they sometimes detached themselves and 
joined another group. The result was that, at one time or another, 
the same man served in Thomas’s, Brandon’s, Roebuck’s, or Steen’s 
regiment. They enlisted for short terms, and transferred themselves 
almost at will from one leader to another when they re-enlisted. They 
were, after all, volunteer militiamen—the most thoroughly democratic 
and self-assertive type of soldier possible. 

The fortitude and vision of men and women in the Upper District 
had no small influence in the final outcome of the Revolution. It is 
never to be forgotten that, when their leaders were ready to yield the 
cause as lost and to make submission to General Clinton, the partisan 
militiamen of the back country said “No”; and, by their stubborn 
resistance to British efforts at organizing the State, forced a renewal 
of the contest. The Spartan Regiment richly deserved the honor be¬ 
stowed on it when its name was given to the county. 



Pages From the Notebooks of Samuel Noblit 
Below, One of His Compositions 


A SONG 


You Carolinans all Draw near 
Attention give & you Shall hear 
The Truth to you I zxnll Relate 
it is of General Clouds Defeat 

The Hilanders Came marching Down 
Thinking to get into Willmington 
Then Casivells Soldiers stop’d them by 
the way 

A marching down in Battle Ray 

Then general Cloud came marching Dozen 
With his men that Did to him Belong 
March on March on Brave Boys Said he 
For zee Sliurely Shall gain the Victory 

Then general Cloud came marching Down 
With Szz’ord in hand he cries aloud 
Fight on Fight on leas all his Tone 
For I make no Doubt but the Days our 
ozm 

Then general Cloud came marching Dozen 
Within Reach of Rifles & Great guns 
Until! a Rifle Bullet give him a zuound 
Which Brought his Body to ye ground 


Then general Cloud Presum'd to Rise 
Fight on Fight on Dear Boys he Cries 
Fight on Fight on Dear Boys said he 
For americans near shall have Liberty 

Then Caszeells Soldiers being Such Val¬ 
ient men 

They Cock’t their Rifles once again 
They Drew their Sights on him so neat 
Which Caused general Clouds Defeat 

Then the Highlanders turn’d tail to Run 
Thinking to Recover home 
Then Caszeells Soldiers Stopcd them by 
the zeay 

Which caused them to Lement the Day 

Then Colnl Thaxton met them their 
Thinking they had Run from the War 
He took their zvaggons & fiz’e hundred 
men 

The Privates he sent home again 

Well since the Battle is ore & Done 
Praises to god zee will Return 
lie has Cleared us of our Miser ye 
and Still Maintains our Liberty 


This Song Wrote By me 
Sam! Noblit 

Wednesday May ye 10th 1780 










CHAPTER THREE 


The Making of Spartan County 

The Jacksonborough As soon as conditions permitted, after the close 
Assembly Q f t h e Revolutionary War, Governor Rutledge 

took the proper steps to set up an orderly government. In November 
he instructed the brigadier generals to conduct elections of represen¬ 
tatives to a General Assembly. The Governor’s proclamation pro¬ 
vided that only active Revolutionists were eligible to vote or act as 
representatives. The Assembly thus elected, January 7, 1782, con¬ 
vened at Jacksonborough, a village near Charles Town. Since the 
British army still occupied Charles Town, the meeting was safe¬ 
guarded by the presence of General Greene’s army. The Upper Dis¬ 
trict was represented in the Assembly by General William Henderson, 
Colonel Thomas Brandon, Samuel Mcjunkin, and Colonel John 
Thomas, Jr. Of this gathering, sometimes called the Jacksonborough 
House, a distinguished historian wrote: “It was a reunion of the 
civil and military leaders who had saved the State, and there never was 
a more notable gathering in South Carolina.” 

The Jacksonborough House was fully occupied with vexing 
questions in connection with the pay of the soldiers and terms of peace. 
During the following year the General Assembly began to wrestle with 
the problem of civil administration. The history of Spartanburg 
County as a distinct unit of government begins with the action of this 
legislature providing for the division of the seven large districts into 
small counties. 

Creation of A commission composed of Andrew Pickens, Richard 
the County Anderson, Thomas Brandon, Levy Kelsey, Philemon 
Waters, Arthur Simkins, and Simon Berwick was appointed by the 
legislature, in 1783, to lay off Ninety-Six District into counties. These 
men at the session of 1785 recommended the division of the District 
into six counties: Abbeville, Edgefield, Laurens, Newberry, Spartan, 
and Union; and an act was passed creating the counties in accordance 
with this recommendation. 

The quaint wording used in the first published editions of the Acts 
of the General Assembly of South Carolina prescribed that county 
courts were to be held “at Spartan.” The phrase, “Spartanburgh 
County,” first appeared in an Act dated December 21, 1798. The 

33 


34 


A History of Spartanburg County 


Act of 1798-1799, abolishing county courts, went into effect January 
1, 1800; and thereafter Spartan County became Spartan, or Spartan- 
burgh, District—these terms appearing interchangeably in the records 
of the period. The constitution of 1868 was to return to the designa¬ 
tion county, which has continued in use ever since. It may be noted, 
however, that all during the post-bellum years, into the eighties, many 
old-fashioned writers retained the use of the word district, resenting 
the change as a Yankee imposition. 

Evolution of The area of the county thus created and put into 

County Boundaries operation had been, in the colonial period, a part 
of Craven County. In 1685, when the Province of South Carolina 
was only fifteen years old, its Proprietors laid it off into four counties. 
The largest of these, Craven County, started at the mouth of the 
Seewee River, a tributary of Bull’s Bay, and followed it to its head. 
From the head of the Seewee River the Craven County line was run 
northwest to the Santee River, up that stream to the Congaree, 
thence up to the Saluda, following the river’s course to the North 
Carolina line, and thence to the Atlantic coast, and down the shore 
back to the starting point, the Seewee River. The upper part of 
Craven County remained Indian lands until after Grant’s war in 1761. 
By the treaty of December 18, 1761, an agreement was reached with 
the Indians by which the so-called Indian Line was marked, coinciding 
roughly with the present lines separating Spartanburg from Green¬ 
ville, Greenville from Laurens, and Abbeville from Anderson counties. 
Settlers could thereafter obtain grants up to this Indian Line. Some 
Spartans still own old grants in this area which designate their lands 
as in Craven County. 

The line between the two Carolinas was uncertain until 1772, when 
the King had it surveyed as far as the “Indian Line”—that is, to the 
northwest corner of what is now Spartanburg County. This fact ex¬ 
plains why many of Spartanburg’s early settlers had grants from North 
Carolina, and why South Carolina grants describe land in what is 
today Spartanburg County as in Craven County, while grants to ad¬ 
jacent lands issued by North Carolina designate these lands as in 
Mecklenburg or Tryon counties. Sometimes two men would hold 
grants to the same tract, one from North Carolina and the other from 
South Carolina. An example is found in the case of William Wof¬ 
ford, who held grants from North Carolina to lands, as in Tryon 
County, which were set down as “vacant” in South Carolina. A 


The Making of Spartan County 


35 


struggle over these titles took place in connection with Buffington’s 
Iron Works. 

In 1769 Ninety-Six District was created, and the area which was 
to become Spartanburg was included in it, and so continued until the 
creation of the counties in 1785. One clause of the act creating new 
counties read: “One to be called Spartan, bounded by Laurens 
County on the north, the Indian Line on the westward, North Carolina 
boundary and Broad River to Tate’s Ferry, thence along the road to 
John Ford’s plantation on Enoree River, including the same.” 

Spartan County, as thus created, contained 1,050 square miles. 
Re-surveys reduced it to 1,004. In 1897 the northeastern part was 
taken to help form Cherokee County. Since that time its area has 
been 765 square miles. 

Natural Features The mountains are in sight from nearly every part 
of the County 0 f Spartanburg, and several elevations are locally 
named mountains; but the county has not a single real mountain. The 
altitude of the city is 875 feet, and the county varies little from this 
figure. The highest point in the county is little more than one thous¬ 
and feet. The streams flowing from the Blue Ridge Mountains tra¬ 
verse Spartanburg County in a general southeast direction so as to di¬ 
vide it into long, almost parallel ridges. The Pacolet River, fed by its 
north and south forks and Lawson’s Fork, waters the northeast sec¬ 
tion, and provides much of the tremendous power which has been so 
important in the industrial development of the county. The Tyger 
River—with its north, middle, and south branches, and its tributary, 
Fairforest Creek—provides similar advantages for the central and up¬ 
per western part of the county. The Enoree drains the lower western 
part of the county. All of the streams are swift and are broken by 
falls or shoals. 

The distribution of the rivers, the numerous springs and small 
creeks, and the gentle slopes of the watersheds combine to make Spar¬ 
tanburg one of the best counties in the United States for farming and 
grazing. The Blue Ridge Mountains, just to the north, serve as a 
protection from severe cold winds. Every part of the county is well 
watered and variegated in surface, so that woodlands, pastures, 
meadows, cultivated fields, and rich bottom-lands, are all to be found 
in nearly every section. The ridges are especially adapted to orchards. 
The numerous mineral springs, the gold, iron, and limestone deposits 
were early recognized as potentially wealth-producing. 


36 


A History of Spartanburg County 


The unusual possibilities of the county were fully realized by the 
pioneer settlers. The story goes that one of the earliest bands of settlers 
encamped on a ridge in the southeast part of the county two miles from 
Glenn Springs, and that a member of their company, James Mc- 
Ilwaine, exclaimed in rapture, “What a fair forest is here!” The 
phrase was seized upon and applied to the stream nearby and the 
region it waters. Spartanburg County was indeed a fair forest from 
its beginnings. 

Organization of The purpose of dividing Ninety-Six District 

County Government j n t 0 coun ties was to provide smaller units of 
government and thus insure proper administration of justice; and at 
the same time minimize the expense and inconvenience citizens must 
incur in attending court or transacting legal business. Circuit Court 
would still be held twice a year at Cambridge (as the courthouse town 
of Ninety-Six District was named) ; but each county had its own gov¬ 
ernment administered by a county court and officers appointed under 
its jurisdiction. 

The first judicial officers for Spartan County were Baylis Earle, 
John Thomas, Jr., Henry White, John Ford, James Jordan, William 
Wood, and Henry Machan Wood. Their commissions were dated 
March 24, 1785, and signed by his Excellency William Moultrie, Esq. 
The commission continued during “good behavior,” and authorized 
the holders “to have full power and jurisdiction to hold the County 
Court in and for the said County . . . and you are to hear and deter¬ 
mine all causes and other matters and controversies properly apper¬ 
taining and referred by law to your jurisdiction.” These commissions 
—inscribed by John Thomas, Jr., previously appointed clerk of 
court—constitute the first public documents recorded in the county. 

The duties of these “gentlemen justices,” as they were officially 
styled, included the selection of a suitable place for holding court and 
the erection of necessary public buildings—courthouse, gaol, pillory, 
whipping post, and stocks. They were to hold court four times a 
year, and to elect officers for the county. They had limited juris¬ 
diction in criminal cases, but were charged with the responsibility of 
maintaining law and order in the county. They had jurisdiction over 
the laying out of roads and the regulation of “public houses of enter¬ 
tainment.” 


The: Making of Spartan County 


37 


The First The first meeting of court was on the third Monday in 
Courts June 1785, at Nicholl’s (later Anderson’s) Mill on 

Tyger River. It is clear that a struggle attended the efforts of the 
county justices to select a site for the public buildings; for they waited 
two years to make a final decision. Meanwhile court convened in 
September and again in December 1785, at the plantation of Thomas 
Williamson, and throughout the year 1786 at John Wood’s plantation. 
After selecting a hill on Wood’s plantation for the public buildings, the 
gentlemen justices, in December, reversed this decision. The clerk’s 
office was then removed to Samuel Porter’s plantation on Lawson’s 
Fork. In January 1787 the commissioners came to an agreement— 
under legislative pressure—and settled on the Williamson plantation 
site. Williamson sold them a rectangular two-acre tract for five 
shillings. Thus was finally determined the precise location of Spartan 
Court House—later Spartanburg. 

First Public A special meeting was held, January 17, 1787, for the 
Buildings purpose of letting the contract for “public buildings”; 
but it was not actually made and signed until February 1. Its pro¬ 
visions specified that a gaol, pillory, whipping post and stocks, “such 
as is usual,” should be completed within the year, and the courthouse 
by 1789. Richard Harrison, Esq., took the contract for two hundred 
and four pounds, and gave bond. 

The first courthouse was built of hewn timbers, and was twenty by 
thirty feet, with a square roof having a twelve-foot pitch. It had one 
story and contained a court room and two jury rooms. The two- 
story log jail was sixteen feet square, and had a foundation of heavy 
stones. These two buildings and the pillory, whipping post, and 
stocks stood among the trees on the Public Ground and constituted 
the seat of justice of Spartan County. The courthouse stood almost 
exactly where the Morgan monument now stands, the location being 
determined by its proximity to a bold spring from which flowed a good 
stream. Such provision for the comfort of man and beast was essen¬ 
tial. This spring dried up long ago, and buildings today cover its 
site. 


County Officers 
and Their Duties 


Colonel John Thomas, Jr., was appointed by the 
legislature the first clerk of court of Spartan 
County. The county court at its first meeting elected William Young 
sheriff, and Joseph Buffington coroner. In March 1787, Colonel John 


38 


A History of Spartanburg County 


Thomas, Jr., was elected treasurer and was provided with a deputy 
clerk of court. To these officers were added, in 1791, five constables: 
Richard Nolly, Hancock Smith, Thomas Gordon, Henry Wolf, Robert 
Harper. The first ordinary, Gabriel Bumpass, was appointed in 1804. 

The sheriff’s office was one of great dignity and responsibility, 
as he was the chief administrative officer, with the power to arrest, 
to sell forfeited property, and to take any measures he deemed 
necessary for preserving the peace. The clerk of court was responsible 
for all records—and records were kept in long hand and written with 
quill pens. Deeds, wills, bills of sales, records of public business 
transacted—all had to be copied carefully. All these records are 
treasured in the office of the clerk of court. 

The officers who administered the laws were not paid salaries; 
instead, the legislature drew up an elaborate code of regulations pre¬ 
scribing their duties and the fees to be collected for the performance 
of each. Their reward was in proportion to their activity. Their 
official duties in early years required little of their time. Many years 
were to elapse before public officers here or in other counties were 
obliged to give their entire attention to their official duties. When that 
condition arose, popular demands eventually led to legislation abolish¬ 
ing the fee system and providing salaries proportioned to the demands 
of offices. 

Some Old Old court records throw much light on the simple 

Court Records ij ves 0 f t h e “ ru( j e forefathers” of Spartanburg. At 
meetings of the county court the gentlemen justices were much occu¬ 
pied with such routine business as qualifying and commissioning ap¬ 
pointees, and establishing rates for taverns, liquor retailers, and houses 
of public entertainment. Some of the prescribed prices and items are 
of interest: A “common cold dinner or supper” was priced at eight 
pence; the same, “neatly cooked,” cost one shilling. A “common 
breakfast” cost eight pence; and, “with bohea, coffee, or chocolate,” 
it cost nine pence; “with bohea and loaf sugar,” it cost a shilling. A 
“clean bed” for one person cost fourpence; for two persons, three¬ 
pence each. “Stabling an horse, with sufficient fodder or hay, for 
twenty-four hours,” cost one shilling sixpence. Each quart of com or 
oats cost twopence. The variety of drinks and their prices astonish 
the present-day reader: Jamaica rum cost twelve shillings per gallon; 
West Indian rum, eight shillings; Nantz brandy cost ten shillings per 
gallon. Whiskey cost four shillings per gallon. The “best Madeira 


The Making of Spartan County 


39 


wine” cost four shillings eight pence a bottle. At least a dozen 
varieties of wine, besides draught, English bottled, and domestic ale, 
were listed. In those first years the number of licenses issued for 
“Keeping House of Public Entertainment and Retailing Spirituous 
Liquors” is truly astonishing, and indicates a considerable amount of 
travel and apparently unquenchable thirst. The fees paid for these 
licenses seem to have formed a sort of contingent fund for the use 
of the court. 

According to the first Bill of Sale recorded in the county, “William 
Neel of Spartan County sold to Daniel Jackson of Union County for 
200 pounds sterling (cash), 3 negroes—a woman named Sue, a girl 
named River (?), a boy named Limas, 1 feather bed and furniture 
thereto belonging, 1 wagon and gears, 1 white horse, Sept. 20, 1785, 
at Spartanburgh. Witnesses John Motlow and William Prince.” 

Several entries show citizens registering “marks” for their cattle. 
Detailed rulings were recorded as to “estrays”—hogs, cows, and 
horses—what was to be paid for their keep, how they were to be dis¬ 
posed of, and so forth. 

Taxes have always caused agitation. At the September court, 
1788, the grand jury argued that the time of collection be prolonged 
“so that those liable to pay the said tax may have time to carry their 
produce to market to enable them to pay the said tax.” The court 
prolonged the time until December. At the March term, 1789, the 
court ruled that, “whereas experience hath proved the inconvenience 
of holding court in this county at the June term, the inhabitance of 
the county being generally engaged at that period with their harvest,” 
jurors should be drawn for September; and a notice was posted that 
certain cases would be carried over from the March to the September 
term. 

Punishments Some of the modes and degrees of punishment com¬ 
mon in the early courts astonish twentieth-century Spartans. For 
example, an attorney at law convicted of petit larceny was, July 15, 
1791, after a month in jail, sentenced to be “taken from the said jail 
to the public whipping post of this county, and between the hours of 
twelve and two o’clock, to receive on his bare back, five lashes well laid 
on by the sheriff.” He was also “forever hereafter silenced from prac¬ 
ticing as an attorney at law in this court.” Further, because he had 
uttered threats of vengeance against two fellow-citizens, he was re¬ 
quired to furnish a bond of one thousand pounds with sufficient se- 


40 


A History of Spartanburg County 


curity that he “peaceably behave” before he could be “admitted to 
liberty.” 

The court, in 1785, fined a man who “called on God to damn the 
grand jurors” fourteen shillings and costs. A citizen, in April 1810, 
was fined one cent upon being convicted of libel. A constable, in 
November 1814, was fined ten dollars for “having suffered spirits to 
be carried into the room” in which witnesses were held. In 1823 an 
“illiterate and ignorant man,” convicted of passing counterfeit money, 
was recommended to mercy. 

No mercy was shown horse stealing. Convicted horse thieves 
were hanged by the neck at the place of public execution. In 1821 the 
grand jury recommended that the punishment for horse stealing be 
lightened. Property seems to have been dearer in the eyes of the law 
than human life, for in November 1827, a convicted murderer was 
sentenced to six months imprisonment and to be branded in the brow 
or thumb with the letter M. On May 27, 1808, a forger was “hung 
by the neck at the place of public execution.” 

Cases of assault and battery were frequent. In January 1796, a 
citizen who had had a large piece of his left ear bitten out in a fight 
petitioned the court that the matter be entered upon the records “as 
a manifestation to the world that it happened not by corporal punish¬ 
ment by the laws of the land.” At the October 1804 term of court a 
citizen was found guilty of biting off another’s nose. 

Some Amusing Grand At the second court, September 1785, the first 
Jury Presentments grand jury was drawn. Its members were: 
William Bensong, George Bratton, William Thomson, David Lewis, 
Charles James, John Head, William Lipscomb, James Oliphant, Cap¬ 
tain William Smith, Charles Moore, Zadock Ford, Andrew Barry, 
William Poole (Taylor), John Carrick, Thomas Jackson, Edward 
Mitchison, Obediah Tremia, Israel Morris, Robert Goodlett, John 
Barry, David Goodlett, Daniel McClam, Vachel Dillingham, and 
William Prince. 

Year after year the grand juries surveyed the condition of the 
county and presented for the attention of the courts true bills against 
offenders and “grievances” which demanded redress. Some of the 
presentments provide amusing reading. For example, in October 
1803, the presentment attacked the evils of capitalistic monopoly in 
the following breathless utterance: 


The: Making of Spartan County 


41 


We, the Grand Jury, present as a Great Grievance that the 
people who are compelled to attend the court of this District in 
the capacities of Jurors, suitors, witnesses and otherwise can not 
find accommodations for themselves and their horses at the Court 
House more because one fellow citizen who owns the land all 
around the Court House chooses to monopolize for his own family 
and connections all the profit arising from Tavern Keeping in 
consequence of which no house of entertainment is kept here ex¬ 
cept one kept by his own Son-in-law and the one kept in the jail by 
the jailer no competition can take place for the improvement or in¬ 
crease for these accommodations because he will not sell any Lott 
to any one who will keep a house of entertainment in order to in¬ 
duce the commissioners from erecting the Public Buildings to place 
them where they now are he promised to sell out some Lotts which 
evaded the object of the Commissioners by selling at vendue only 
four having them bought in by himself, his son and his two sons- 
in-law, we, therefore, recommend that the Legislature shall ap¬ 
point certain commissioners to value some given quantity of land 
near the Court House at its just and reasonable value and that the 
State should pay for it at that rate and that the Commissioners 
should then lay it out by a fixed place into convenient lots and sell 
out those lots at private sale to such as will buy them under such 
regulations as will prevent a repetition of this oppressive monopoly 
and the proceeds of those sales shall be paid into the Public 
Treasury to reimburse the State and we request that our members 
in the Legislature will use their influence to have this recommen¬ 
dation carried into effect. 

Year after year the grand jury complained that the grand jurors 
were required to serve without recompense. In April 1811, they 
lamented piteously the plight of the grand juror who, “driven to the 
woods for a pillow to relieve his weary head upon draws his biscuit 
from his napsack to satiate his hungry appetite.” Not only were they 
unpaid, but some presentments pointed out that jurors were not made 
decently comfortable, that the jury rooms were “not furnished with 
tables,” that the “Grand Jury Box” was not large enough. 

Complaints of incompetence against public servants appeared early. 
The grand jury, October 1803, reported “the unfinished situation of 
the Court House” pointing out that nearly four years had passed since 
money was appropriated for erecting it, and that it was still incomplete, 
so that it was “unfit for the reception of the Court and the officers 
thereof.” 

The inhabitants of the county lived and dressed in a pioneer style 
which harmonized with their rough public buildings; nevertheless they 


42 


A History of Spartanburg County 


had a reverence for the majesty of the law, and courts were conducted 
with all the decorum of established legal procedure. The sheriff wore 
a cocked hat and a sword, and the judges wore wigs and robes. That 
rule of court was enforced which read: “No person who is not a 
member of the bar shall be allowed to sit at the table or desk designed 
for the use of the bar in any Court House in the State, nor shall any 
member of the bar be allowed to take a seat there unless he be first 
noted, nor to continue seated there unless he also continues in his 
robe, and it shall be the duty of the Sheriff to attend the execution of 
this rule.” 

County From the establishment of the courthouse, the first Mon- 

Sohdanty day in each month was Sales Day; and neither heat nor 

cold, nor plowing, planting, or harvesting—and only in extreme cases 
“high water on the Tygers”—prevented the gathering of throngs of 
men on the “Public Ground” on those days. Some came at the behest 
of the sheriff; some, to see what property was changing hands; some, 
to get bargains. Old women in covered wagons came to sell ginger¬ 
bread, apples, and cider. Men from the remote settlements seized the 
opportunity to “trade,” swapping knives, hogs, cows, and horses. 
They wrestled and played marbles and sampled each other’s liquor, 
and exchanged the news. They held impromptu horse races. 

The Act of 1798-1799, abolishing the county courts and ordaining 
that circuit courts should be held at all the county courthouses in 
accordance with a regular calendar, brought to Court Week a greater 
dignity and importance than had belonged to it in former days. 
Lawyers from other localities brought fresh viewpoints on public 
questions, and animated debates and discussions in the inns and streets 
made of court week a school of politics. 

Thus the courthouse proved a focus for the life of the people of 
the county—the high and the low, the rich and the poor, found in it 
a community center and built up about it a strong sense of county 
solidarity. 


CHAPTER FOUR 


Spartan District, 1800-1825 

Population By the first census, taken 1790, the population of Spar¬ 
tan County was 8,800. Included in this number were 
twenty-seven “free persons not white,” and 866 slaves. Of the 1,264 
heads of households, more than one thousand owned not even one 
slave. In round numbers, one hundred households had two, three, or 
four slaves each. The number of households which owned from five 
to ten slaves each hardly exceeded fifty; and not more than ten house¬ 
holds in the entire county owned more than ten slaves each. One 
man owned twenty-seven, another thirty-six—these two being the 
largest single owners in the county. 

Settlement and development continued in this area during the 
Revolution until 1780. Many Revolutionary soldiers obtained grants 
and settled here after 1785. But many also left to obtain better or 
larger acreage in the newly opened Indian lands of the present coun¬ 
ties of Greenville, Anderson, and Pickens. 

Lo«» of Colonel John Thomas, Sr., went into the new lands as 

Noted Citizens “Commissioner of Locations for the north side of the 
Saluda River,” and settled a place he called Milford in Greenville 
County. Several years later Colonel John Thomas, Jr., followed his 
father to Greenville County, and became the first ordinary of that 
county, having already been the first clerk of court and the first 
treasurer of Spartanburg County. 

It is a matter of record that the son of that Thomas Williamson, 
on whose plantation the courthouse was erected in 1787, was a Pres¬ 
byterian minister in Union, and that he migrated to Ohio in 1805, 
“entertaining some scruples about the institution of slavery.” Whole 
congregations of Quakers and numbers of Scotch Presbyterians joined 
this Ohio migration, in many instances taking their slaves with them 
to be set free. All these are typical illustrations of the restlessness of 
the period. Yet, in spite of such losses, the county grew and pros¬ 
pered. Many valuable new settlers poured in. 

Governor John Drayton of Charleston, governor from 1800 

Drayton’s View to 1802, made a tour of the State and published in 
1802 A View of South Carolina, a book that contained few specific 
references to Spartanburg County but many general descriptions 

43 


44 


A History of Spartanburg County 


which applied to it. In one passage he gave an interesting account of 
social customs in what he designated as the “upper country”: 

In the retired parts of the country, the amusements are few; 
consisting of dancing, horse-racing, ball-playing, and rifle shoot¬ 
ing. At different places in the upper country one occasionally 
meets ball-alleys, which are resorted to by young men, for playing 
at fives. Horse-racing is more discountenanced by them than 
formerly; the people having become more industrious, and atten¬ 
tive to family concerns. At rifle shooting they are particularly ex¬ 
pert ; and in some cases find it much to their advantage. Instead 
of articles being sold at vendue, they are often shot for, by rifle 
shooters, at a small price each shot; which is more useful and 
honorable than the raffling mode .... They generally shoot at a 
mark about the size of a dollar, and he who does not strike the 
center of it, or nearly so, will come in for no part of the reward. 

Drayton went on to say that in this manner often one or two men 
went away with the whole of a beef thus put up. He said that the 
marksmanship of these men was such that they easily hit a deer at its 
utmost speed at a distance of 100 yards. He found the interest in 
fine horses very general, and said that it was customary for boys not 
older than eight years to ride to school, and, though there was not a 
riding master in the State, that expert riding was general. 

Roads Of roads Governor Drayton wrote: “. . . . at this time 
a carriage and four may be driven from any part of this State to the 
other, and from the seashore to the mountains, without any other 
difficulty than such as naturally arises in long journeys.” He found 
that most of the streams in the Up Country were fordable or provided 
with ferries or bridges—“some few toll.” Crossroads connected all 
the courthouses with each other, and an excellent wagon-road led 
from the North Fork of Saluda Road to Knoxville, Tennessee, over 
which wagons bearing 2,500 pounds passed easily. 

Tolls Today travelers have a gasoline tax to grumble over; in 
the years just before and after 1800 they had tolls to pay at bridges 
and ferries. In some cases owners even charged them for the privi¬ 
lege of fording the streams that traversed their property. Typical of 
toll charges are those the legislature permitted Casper Webb to charge 
at a ferry over Broad River. Sheep, goats, and hogs were charged for 
at the rate of two cents each; horses at four cents; foot passengers at 
four cents; passengers on horseback, seven cents; a two-wheel carri¬ 
age with horse or horses and driver, twenty-five cents; four-wheel 


Spartan District, 1800-1825 


45 


carriage ditto, fifty cents; a hogshead of tobacco rolled, with horses 
and driver, twelve cents. Webb was responsible for keeping up roads 
opposite his ferry. It is easy to realize how expensive Spartan 
farmers found it to get their cattle and produce to market, and how 
early they were awake to the importance of improving their transpor¬ 
tation facilities. 


Impression of a A Charleston gentleman, Columbus F. Hale, 
Charleston Visitor v i s iting friends in the vicinity of Fort Prince, in¬ 
cluded in his diary an excellent description of this area in the year 
1804. His journey to Fort Prince in a carriage, with an outrider, 
required ten days. Of the neighborhood about the present-day 
Enoree, he wrote: “Farms and settlements of different extent car¬ 
peted numberless acres, and although not pleasant to the eye of the 
lower countryman in their method of erecting their houses, being 
mostly built of logs, still there might be perceived a neatness within 
which destroyed other impressions.” 

This traveler was much impressed as he crossed the Enoree, by 
the “tumbling fury of the cataract, with sheets of foam.” He ad¬ 
mired the “elegant seat of a Mr. Farrow,” as he drove along. This 
was Samuel Farrow, an outstanding citizen, Lieutenant Governor of 
the State 1810-12, afterwards a member of Congress and later of the 
State legislature, where he earned a place in the State’s roll of fame 
as the “Father of the Asylum.” He resigned from Congress in order 
to enter the State legislature and urge the importance of establishing 
a State hospital for the treatment of mental diseases. 

In crossing Middle Tyger, Hale’s “chair”—a two-wheeled vehicle 
—got into a deep hole, and was extricated with difficulty. He spoke of 
the “risk” incurred in this passage. The appearance of the “Inde¬ 
pendent Church,” he pronounced “respectable for these parts.” Hale 
mentioned passing two other churches, but he did not indicate their 
names or comment on them. He had to ford all three Tygers and 
found all steep and rough. 


Typical Homes Hale wrote that the section in which he was a guest 
of 1804 had been settled by the family of Colonel Wade 

Hampton. Hampton’s home he described as having eight rooms and 
two stories, and approached by an avenue of chestnuts and walnuts. 
The home of Captain Peter Gray, whom Hale visited, was doubtless 
typical of the better class of houses in Spartanburg District at the 


46 


A History of Spartanburg County 


period. “Secluded on the summit of a very high hill” it “commanded 
an extensive view.” It was a frame dwelling of four rooms with one 
story, a piazza in front, and standing on pillars four feet from the 
ground. An “avenue of tall and stately oaks, hickory, walnut, and 
chestnut trees as if planted by art” led from the “broad road” to the 
house, a distance of two hundred yards. On the right of the house 
was a fourteen-acre orchard of “lovely peach, apple, and plum trees.” 
Seventy-five acres of planting land of the 280 contained in the property 
had been cleared for cultivation. A barn, a “framed” house, a kitchen, 
stables, and negro houses of logs were clustered about the house. The 
neighbors impressed Hale as being “many of them respectable,” but 
for the most part “truly ignorant and much attached to ardent spirits 
—many beastly so.” The crops were wheat, rye, Indian corn, to¬ 
bacco, and “some little cotton of the short staple kind.” The liquors, 
of domestic manufacture, were whiskey, peach and apple brandy, and, 
to a limited extent only, wine. 

Hale spoke approvingly of the “hospitable plantation and home of 
General Thomas Moore of the Spartan District,” with whom he and 
his wife exchanged visits. He found General Moore, with his wife 
and six children, living “all in the backwoods state, but on a more re¬ 
fined scale than that presented by the generality of settlers, his circum¬ 
stances being more independent.” 


Spartanburg This Charleston visitor deplored the facts that 

Handicaps in 1804 ver y i lot wea jj ier an( j strain on his horses on the 
existing roads limited visiting. He went to the “Court House of Spar- 
tanburgh” on September first, and, in driving over a newly cleared road 
from which the stumps had not been removed, was thrown from his 
“chair” and broke an arm. He suffered four days before a surgeon ar¬ 
rived, and the messenger who brought this surgeon had traveled a dis¬ 
tance of one hundred and twenty miles to procure him. 

Hale commented on the fact that in spite of excellent lands and a 
good climate, farming could not be made very profitable because of 
the lack of transportation facilities. He was unfavorably impressed 
by the prevalence of “camp meetings” and by the addiction of all 
classes of society to an excessive indulgence in drink. 


Glimpses from Bishop Asbury visited this section annually be- 
Asbury’s Journal tween 17g7 and 18H> an( j there are many entries j n 

his Journal which show him as in thorough agreement with Captain 


Spartan District, 1800-1825 


47 


Hale on the subjects of drink and bad roads. But he thanked God 
for the camp meetings. Some of the entries made in his diary by this 
saintly founder of Methodism in South Carolina were as follows: 

Feb. 20, 1788 . . . Our friends here on Tyger River are very 
much alive to God, and have built a good chapel. We rode on to 
Buffington’s in the evening on Fairforest Creek and were kindly 
entertained. 

March 26, 1795 . . . Crossed Pacolet River . . . My body is 
weak, and so is my faith for this part of the vineyard . . . This 
country improves in cultivation, wickedness, mills and stills; a 
prophet of strong drink would be acceptable to many of these 
people. 

I crossed Lawson’s Fork at the high shoals, a little below the 
Beauty Spot. I could not but admire the curosity of the people— 
my wig was as great a subject of speculation as some wonderful 
animal from Africa or India would have been. I had about one 
hundred people at the meeting-house, some come to look at, and 
others to hear me . . . After brother M. and myself had preached 
we passed the Cow-Pens where Morgan and Tarleton had their 
fray. 

Nov. 2, 1803: Preached to a lifeless congregation (at 
Wood’s), and came off, without dining, to John Foster’s twelve 
miles . . . 

In this route I crossed the three branches of Tyger River and 
passed through Greenville and Spartanburg counties . . . find that 
the camp meetings have been conducted in good order and with 
great success. 

Nov. 3, 1803: At Foster’s Meeting House ... In evening 
had a lively prayer-meeting. 

Nov. 3, 1803: Recrossed branches of Tyger and Enoree, came 
along a crippling path to Thomas Terry’s. 

Dec. 2, 1810: We breakfasted with kind and attentive An¬ 
thony Foster, and continued on to Robert Haile’s. 

Bishop Asbury gave some vivid accounts of bad roads he en¬ 
countered in the Up Country, and of the sparseness of the population. 
“It is a trifle,” he wrote of the Broad River Circuit in 1803, “to ride 
in this country thirty miles without food for man or beast. ’ It was 
in a neighboring county that he made this entry: “We met people 
coming from a militia muster, drunk . . . Glory be to God we have our 
camp-meetings too!” On one journey he got out of his carriage and 
mounted the horse to get across the river. Often he had to retrace 
his way because he found the waters up and fords impassable. Once 


48 


A History of Spartanburg County 


he wrote: “Then had we to cross Broad River, and pierce thru the 
woods, scratch and go in the by-paths—wind round the plantations— 
creep across the newly cleared ground by clambering over trees, 
boughs, and fence-rails; thus we made our way fifteen miles." 

Michael Gaffney’* Another picture of this section at the same period 
Description* j s f ounc j j n t h e dj ar y of Michael Gaffney, 

founder of the town of Gaffney, whose trading post and tavern at the 
intersection of two established trading paths came to be called Gaff¬ 
ney’s Cross-Roads, later Gaffney’s Old Field, later still Gaffney. In 
1802 he settled in that part of Spartanburg District which is now 
Cherokee County. His diary has been preserved and it gives a very 
clear picture of his impressions as he passed from Charleston to 
Smith’s Ford on Broad River. A native of Ireland and possessed of 
some means, he was disappointed, as he made his way up from 
Charleston, to find the interior “low and unhealthy” and the people 
“yellow, poor, and sickly." He had anticipated finding in the foot¬ 
hill region “a fine country, but was surprised to find it poor, sandy, 
rocky, and hilly.” Most of the people were poor and were dressed, 
peasant style, in hunting shirts and trousers, home-woven of coarse 
cotton yarn. “Every farmer or planter,” he noted, “is his own shoe¬ 
maker, tanner, tailor, carpenter, brazier, and, in fact, everything else. 
Everything comes by the farmer and his family. It is the business 
of the wife and daughter to pick cotton and have it brought home, 
pick it from the seed, spin it, weave it, and make it ready for your 
back. Some of the girls made very handsome cloth. The women in 
this country live the poorest lives of any people in the world. It is 
directly opposite to Charleston; here they must do everything from 
cooking to ploughing, and after that they have no more life in them 
than Indian squaws. They hardly ever sit down at the table with 
their husbands, but wait on them like menial servants.” 

When this was written, about 1802, much of Spartanburg District, 
except along the water courses and the two or three Indian trading 
paths which traversed it, was virgin forest. Gaffney’s description 
doubtless applied to a large proportion of the scattered settlers of the 
Up Country, although traditions indicate that there were, here and 
there, families provided with slaves and equipment, whose homes, even 
though crude, were comfortable and tasteful; and among whom social 
amenities were observed and a few books were cherished. Few, in¬ 
deed, they must have been, when little Angelica Mitchell, about this 




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Limestone Springs Hotel, Built in 1835 













































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































Spartan District, 1800-1825 


49 


time, had to learn her letters from Locke’s Essay on the Human 
Understanding and learned to write by the use of a sharp stick on 
sandy ground. 

Boiling Springs Local tradition runs that Boiling Springs was a 
Traditions trading center and crossroads point of such im¬ 

portance in the early days that it was seriously considered by the 
county commissioners as a location for the courthouse. It was a 
gathering place for drovers, being situated at the intersection of two 
much-traveled roads and in the heart of the cattle-raising country. 
Lossing gathered an account of how, in the beginnings of the country, 
small communities grew up from the activities of those men who kept 
cows. During the summers they made butter and cheese for market 
and trained the steers as beasts of burden, using them to secure and 
haul lumber. In the fall they drove to market those animals ready for 
sale as beef or draft animals. These activities demanded the work of 
a good many men, and soon taverns, trading posts, and churches, grew 
out of their needs. When such a community had the added asset of a 
remarkable spring, it soon became outstanding. 

Mineral Pacolet Springs seems to have been the first of the mineral 
Springs springs of the county to attain note. The stagecoach 
tables show that it was a stop in the 1790’s on the route from York- 
ville to Spartanburg. John Drayton mentioned it in 1802. Before 
1825 it became Poole’s Spring, and in 1855 R. C. Poole was operating 
there a hotel for forty to sixty boarders in “plain, decent country 
style.” He advertised “a number of common summer log cabins for 
rent,” and stated that these springs had been “resorted to for the last 
century or more by those afflicted with most kinds of diseases.” Pat¬ 
terson’s Spring, less known than Pacolet Springs, was in the same 
vicinity, and almost immediately across the Pacolet River. 

In the early part of the century, Willson Nesbitt, of the Nazareth 
settlement, bought thousands of acres of land along Cherokee Creek 
and Broad River with the purpose of developing iron works. On one 
of his tracts was a spring known as Nesbitt’s Limekiln Spring. Later 
named Limestone Springs, this and an adjacent freestone spring be¬ 
came the nucleus of one of the first villages in the old Spartan Dis¬ 
trict. In 1835 a stock company built there one of the handsomest 
hotels in the entire country, surrounded it with cottages, and employed 
landscape artists to beautify the grounds. Within ten years the hotel 


50 


A History of Spartanburg County 


was closed, and the property bought at forced sale for use as a girl’s 
school. The village remained a popular resort for years, many wealthy 
families owning summer homes there. Boarding houses were oper¬ 
ated after the hotel was closed. 

The first white traders learned from the Indians, tradition says, 
of the remarkable qualities of a spring on the Means plantation. They 
said the deer resorted to it first and that the Indians learned by acci¬ 
dent of its medicinal virtues. Revolutionary soldiers found that bath¬ 
ing in its waters cured “itch” and that drinking it relieved intestinal 
disorders. The spring became so popular and visitors in the Means 
home so numerous that, in 1816, Means sold the spring and the land 
surrounding it to John B. Glenn, who bought it with the purpose of 
erecting a boarding house. Soon what had been the “Sulphur 
Spring,” or the “Powder Spring,” took the name of Glenn’s Springs. 

Before the Revolution a bold spring was locally known, because of 
its color, as the Green Spring. This name was dropped and the 
spring early became the Cedar Spring. It was a community land¬ 
mark during the Revolution, and was the site of encampments and 
fights between Whigs and Tories. The Cedar Spring Baptist Church 
was in existence as an arm of Fairforest (of*Union County) before 
the Revolution, and was organized as an independent church in 1786. 
When Robert Mills described Spartanburg District, he was especially 
enthusiastic in his account of the flourishing village of Cedar Spring. 
He described it as “growing into importance,” with a large Baptist 
meeting house, nine “small but decent dwelling houses, laid out with 
regularity facing the spring,” a grove of oaks and hickories surround¬ 
ing it, and a “promising academy in which Latin, Greek, mathematics, 
and English studies are taught.” It was already a popular summer 
resort, the water from the spring being used for drinking and bathing. 
Cedar Spring at this time, according to Mills, had “thirty-five whites,” 
characterized by him as a “very select society.” Lockwood, in a 
geography of the State published in 1832, also commended Cedar 
Spring. 

An Official In 1826 the earliest existing statistical survey of Spar- 
Survey tanburg District was published, in Statistics of South 

Carolina, prepared by Robert Mills under the authority of the Board 
of Public Works. 

According to the 1820 census the population was 13,655 whites, 
3,308 slaves, and 26 free blacks. Twenty-seven paupers were support- 


Spartan District, 1800-1825 


51 


ed by an annual tax of $835. In Mills’ statistical tabulations Spar¬ 
tanburg District ranked twentieth among the twenty-eight districts 
in the value of its products, and twenty-third in the amount of taxes 
paid. The established value of marketable products was $320,000. 
The taxes paid in 1824 amounted to $4,176.60. 

The District contained 672,000 acres of land—50,000 acres under 
cultivation. The staples produced for home consumption were peas, 
corn, and oats; and for market, cotton. Iron was the only other 
marketable product Mills listed, and he pronounced it of an inferior 
quality not fit to compete in the markets with foreign iron. Mills 
found in the District “three public and several private distilleries,” and 
doubtless their products were marketable and found ready sales. Cer¬ 
tainly “the coarse cottons and woolens manufactured in the District, 
some for sale,” should be included in the list of marketable pro¬ 
ducts. Rather lightly, with the comment that “two cotton factories on 
Tyger do very good business,” did Robert Mills pass over what was 
in truth the most significant industrial enterprise he saw. 

Mills condemned the lack of an agricultural society in the Dis¬ 
trict, and found agriculture “deplorably deficient,” no fertilizer used, 
and no proper management of timber. He distinguished by special 
mention Daniel White, Esq., whom he described as an enterprising ex¬ 
perimental farmer with vision. Prices of farm products, in 1825, may 
be compared to present-day prices: Corn brought from 37c to $1 per 
bushel; wheat, $1 to $1.25; beef sold at 3^2c per pound. Costs of 
labor were correspondingly low, wage hands receiving $8 to $10 a 
month. Board cost $50 to $100 a year. 

During the quarter century after 1800, the problem of transpor¬ 
tation absorbed much public attention. In 1816 the Spartanburg Grand 
Jury presented as a grievance the fact “that Tyger and Enoree rivers 
were not made navigable for boats as well as other rivers, inasmuch 
as their being made navigable would tend greatly to facilitate the trans¬ 
portation of our produce to market, inhance the price of lands, tend 
to the conveniences of the citizens generally, and the great internal 
improvements of our State.” 

Robert Mills, too, was impressed with the belief that Spartanburg 
suffered because of its distance from markets and lack of facilities 
for transportation. It had productive soil and a favorable climate; but 
despite these advantages little agriculture beyond what was necessary 


52 


A History of Spartanburg County 


to supply local needs was practicable on account of the cost and diffi¬ 
culty of getting crops to market. 

In his eagerness to see a network of canals over the entire State, 
Mills professed to see no reason why the Tygers, the Enoree, and the 
Pacolet should not be made navigable. He even thought it advisable 
that Spartanburg plan a system of navigation by way of Lawson’s 
Fork, the Pacolet, and the Broad rivers, to the markets at and below 
Columbia. 

The Map The Atlas which accompanied the Statistics of South 

of 1825 Carolina is one of the most valuable sources of infor¬ 

mation on the early history of the State. It presents a picture of the 
development of each of the twenty-eight districts of which it treats 
that cannot be elsewhere duplicated. Its map of Spartanburg District 
indicates the quality of the land in different parts of its area; the loca¬ 
tion of natural resources—iron ore, limestone, marble, soapstone; the 
location of mills, post offices, taverns, dwellings of important citizens, 
and churches; the names and directions of roads, and several.points 
of historic interest. The nine post offices tell their own story, indi¬ 
cating the general distribution of population. Nearly fifty mills are 
shown on the map. It is possible, by checking county court records, 
to find when the nineteen taverns were licensed, and by whom they 
were kept. The general distribution of travel may be estimated from 
their locations. They were thickest on the Buncombe Road, the 
Blackstock Road, the Georgia Road, and the Rutherfordton Road. 
Along these roads the traders and drovers passed to and from market. 

The roads of the county Mills pronounced “in pretty good re¬ 
pair,” with the principal river-crossings bridged—six bridges over the 
Tygers, three over Fairforest, and “several” across South Pacolet. 
The roads marked Ballenger’s Road and Tolleson’s Road are signifi¬ 
cant. Certain energetic men owned and managed trains of wagons, 
with which they conducted lucrative transportation enterprises. Such 
men undertook the maintenance of roads, and were sometimes per¬ 
mitted to place toll gates on them to help with the cost of their up¬ 
keep. These roads often bore the names of their promoters or 
sponsors. 

Prospects Such is the general picture of the District forty years 
after its creation—handicapped by its remoteness from markets, but 
inhabited by enterprising men and women who already had laid the 


Spartan District, 1800-1825 


53 


basis for expansion. The years to follow were to show the evolution 
of the shabby little courthouse village'into a thriving town; the estab¬ 
lishment throughout the District of churches and schools of real im¬ 
portance ; the development of the iron industry to such an extent that 
for many years Spartanburg was to hold first place in the State in the 
value of manufactured products; the building of cotton factories which 
were destined to transcend in importance the iron works. These 
achievements were, in the decade before the Civil War, to win for the 
District a place of honor and influence throughout the State. 



CHAPTER FIVE 


The Courthouse Village 

Early Citizens The indications are that the courthouse village grew 
and Activities ver y s i ow ly. As late as 1802 John Drayton in his 

survey of the State included in his list of forty-two villages only two 
in the Up Country: Greenville and Pinckneyville. He wrote: 

. . a few houses and stores are erected in every district, in the 
vicinity of the courthouses belonging to the same.” A plat showing 
the “courthouse village of Spartanburgh” of 1802 bears out this ac¬ 
count. 

The growth of the county’s needs soon necessitated a larger public 
square, and in 1825 H. H. Thomson sold the northeast lot across from 
Brannon’s to the State of South Carolina for $900, and on it was 
erected the second courthouse. The new jail had already been built 
on what became known as Jail Street (now Wall Street). There 
was now more space for the public and private activities of salesday, 
and for the drovers and traders. 

Appearance of the The traditions of later years delighted to por- 
Courthouse Village tra y t i ie y 0un g courthouse village as a sort of 
“Wild West” frontier settlement, to which, on salesdays and court 
days, men resorted to drink, gamble, fight, and race horses; not a 
place for establishing a home or rearing a family. No doubt the old 
men who told some of the tales of those wild days enjoyed shocking 
their hearers and exaggerated a bit. One tale often repeated was to 
the effect that in 1793 two young attorneys from Charleston came to 
Spartanburg to plead a case in court. When bedtime came they were 
horrified to see from their window what seemed to be hundreds of men 
fighting and scuffling on the Public Ground by the illumination of 
pinewood torches. The scene was so barbaric that the next day—the 
story runs—they placed their affairs in the hands of local attorneys 
and hastened back to civilization. 

For its first fifty years the town of Spartanburgh had a shifting 
and adventurous population. Well-to-do Spartans of that era showed 
no aspiration for village life, but acquired extensive tracts of land and 
mill sites and lived such lives as the country squires enjoyed in the 
old world. Those first residents of the village were there to operate 
shops and stores and taverns, or to practice medicine and law; and 
54 


The Courthouse Village 


55 


most of them owned plantations or mills in the county. Few of them 
built handsome homes in the village. 

As an old man, General B. B. Foster, who was born in 1817, re¬ 
called the village as being, in his boyhood, hardly more than a cluster 
of buildings in the backwoods, surrounded by chinquapin thickets and 
uncleared woodland. It had the “handsome jail” commended by 
Mills, and a new courthouse; otherwise its buildings were largely of 
logs or frame structures. Jesse Cleveland’s cow pasture extended 
from the heart of the present city to Wofford College; and what is 
now Main Street, between Liberty and Pine streets, had but a few 
scattered houses along it, and was a race-path over which, on public 
days, men tried out their horses. As late as April 13, 1838, the town 
council decreed: “Be it ordained by the Intendent and Wardens of 
the town of Spartanburgh in council assembled that if any person or 
persons run horses or be engaged in running horse races in any street 
or public road within the corporate limits of this town, he shall be 
fined for each and every offense against this ordinance, ten dollars.” 

General Foster recalled the sight of Jesse Cleveland mounted on 
the flea-bitten horse which he always rode when he hunted deer or 
traveled, setting out for Baltimore or Philadelphia to buy goods for his 
store. He was preceded by a train of wagons and slaves to load and 
bring home his purchases. Once, about 1812, according to the remi¬ 
niscences of a son of his partner, Benson, Jesse Cleveland drove a 
four-horse wagon to Philadelphia loaded with rabbit skins and gin¬ 
seng, and returned at the exact hour set. On this occasion a group of 
his friends met him at Dick Thomson’s Mill (now White’s Mill) and 
celebrated his return in accordance with the custom of the period. 

The Second A new courthouse was authorized by the General As- 
Courthouse se mbly in 1825, begun in 1826, and occupied in 1827. 
It was of whitewashed stone. The lower floor contained offices, and 
the upper story was devoted to the jury rooms and the court room. 
In the cornerstone were placed three dimes and a seven-pence, a 
copy of the “Masonic Mirror,” and some other mementos. On 
the cornerstone a silver tablet, 5x7 inches in size, bore the date 
1826. Engraved on this tablet were the names of national and state 
officials, and of the men who participated in the erection of the court¬ 
house. The inscription on the middle column bore local names and 
read: 


56 A History of Spartanburg County 

BUILT BY ACT OF THE ASSEMBLY OF 1825 

CORNER STONE LAID IN DUE FORM AND ORDER AT THE RE¬ 
QUEST OF THE SPARTANBURG BRETHREN, BY THE WORSHIP¬ 
FUL MASTER AND BRETHREN OF LODGE NO. 43 AT UNION, 

C. H. ON THE 13TH DAY OF SEPTEMBER, IN THE YEAR OF 
MASONRY, 5826. DOCT. T. M. BRAGG, W. MASTER. 

BUILDERS: C. HUMPHREYS, ARCHITECT; A. BEARD, B. JOHN¬ 
SON, JOHN WILBANKS, J. MAYS, W. PERRY, J. J. FULLER, 
MASTER WORKMEN; THOMAS POOLE, A. FOSTER, JESSE CLEVE¬ 
LAND, COMMISSIONERS OF PUBLIC BUILDINGS. 

Village According to the survey of Robert Mills the population of 
Statistics village i n 1825 was 800. Possibly Mills wrote the 

figure 3 and it was mistaken for 8. Even 300 seems a liberal estimate. 
Mills reported that the village contained 26 houses, including a tailor’s 
shop, a saddler’s, 3 stores, and 3 houses of entertainment. The next 
available statistical account of the village is to be found in a census 
taken by order of the town council in 1836. David W. Moore, Esq., 
was the sole “Censor” and he was paid $3 for the job. His report 
follows: Whites: Total 312—under 10 years 55 males, 46 females; 
from 10 to 20 years 48 males, 35 females; from 20 to 50 years 73 
males, 42 females; over 50 years, 5 males and 5 females. Blacks: 
Total 158—under 10 years 31 males, 22 females; from 10 to 20 years 
13 males, 20 females; from 20 to 50 years 31 males, 32 females; over 
50 years 3 males and 5 females; ministers of the gospel, 3 ; doctors, 4; 
lawyers, 8; merchants, 13; merchants’ clerks, 5; students at school, 
68; school masters, 2; school mistresses, 1; carpenters, 10; tanners, 
2; tailors, 10; shoe makers, 5; blacksmiths, 5; tavern keepers, 2; brick 
masons, 3; tinners, 1; saddlers, 2; carriage makers, 7. 

Incorporation “The village of Spartanburgh” was incorporated 
of the Village by a legislative act passed December 17, 1831, with 
of Spartanburgh limits extending one mile in every direction from 
the courthouse. Its charter provided for a town council consisting 
of an intendant and four wardens to be elected annually on the first 
Monday in September. These officers had to take prescribed oaths, 
but received no salaries. Their duties were: to appoint constables, 
to establish all rules and by-laws and ordinances respecting streets, 
ways, and markets; to preserve health and order, peace and good 
government. They were authorized to collect taxes and apply moneys 
to the corporation, and to impose and use fines. They could apply to 


The Courthouse Village 


57 


the needs of the town money secured from licensing billiard tables, 
taverns, and retailers of spirituous liquors. They could regulate the 
working and improving of the streets and “compound,” according to 
their judgment, with citizens liable for street duty. They could not 
impose any fine of more than $25; and from any fine of more than 
$10 a citizen had the right to appeal to the higher court. 

The Town The oath of office was administered, June 27, 1832, to 
Council the first council: Thomas Poole, Intendant; William 

Trimmier, R. M. Young, James E. Henry, and J. V. Miller, Wardens. 
For some years the council deemed four regular meetings a year 
Sufficient for attending to the affairs of the village. They met in the 
office of the clerk of court in the courthouse on the first Saturday in 
January, April, July, and October; and on whatever other occasions a 
meeting might be called. The minutes indicate that they really met 
whenever they had some business to transact, and not otherwise; and 
that they were constantly changing the time of meeting. They had 
various duties, besides those they entrusted to the clerk and treasurer 
and the marshal. It was their job to try cases of assault and battery, 
which were surprisingly frequent among the leading citizens, as well 
as others. They had no jurisdiction over any case for which a penalty 
of more than $10 seemed indicated, but turned such cases over to the 
court of sessions. They adopted ordinances fixing patrol duties, road 
work, the opening, closing, or changing of streets, the licensing of 
taverns and shows. The minutes are filled during the thirties and 
early forties with such matters, and contain nothing that indicates any 
civic interest in education. The council was preoccupied with penaliz¬ 
ing drunkenness, promoting road improvement, and regulating the 
movements of slaves. The earliest expense account recorded in the 
minutes of the town council was H. H. Thomson’s report in 1834. 
As intendant he received during the year $201.20 and paid out $158.88. 

The chief public outlays were for working the roads. Every 
citizen between the ages of 15 and 50 had to work 12 days on the road 
each year, or pay a commutation tax of $2 for himself and every male 
slave he owned. In the course of time practically everybody paid the 
tax, and the roads were worked by contract. According to the 
standards of the thirties and even the fifties, a mile of road could be 
satisfactorily worked for from $15 to $30. The limits were a mile 
from the courthouse, and the roads were worked that one mile. 
There the county commissioners took over the job. 


58 


A History of Spartanburg County 


The intendant and four wardens were not paid for serving the 
municipality; but they employed a marshal, who was bonded at $500. 
He must enforce the laws, preserve order, and report evasions of legal 
obligations to the council. One of his principal duties was to whip 
slaves convicted of drunkenness, or other misdemeanors, and for each 
such service he was paid fifty cents by the owner of the slave. The 
marshal’s income was thus determined by his efficiency. Every citi¬ 
zen must take his turn at patrol duty, the village being divided in half, 
and each division furnishing three patrols. In the thirties a patrol 
consisted of a captain and four men; its service lasted one month; and 
it had to patrol at least twice a week, and report to the council through 
its captain. For each failure to patrol, the council fined an offender $1. 
The marshal received at first $10 a year for tolling the academy bell 
ten minutes each night, beginning at the stroke of nine. All slaves, un¬ 
less provided with “passes,” must be at home when it ceased to ring, or 
the patrol would arrest them and the marshal would cowhide them. 
Everybody has heard 

“Run, nigger, run, de pader-roller’ll git yuh! 

Won’t git me, git dat nigger ’hin’ dat tree!” 

The barrooms also stopped business at nine, or the patrol or marshal 
got them. Such was the early police system of the town. 

As the village grew, the hazard of fire provided the council with 
one of its most important problems. One of the first ordinances passed 
in 1832 required every householder and storekeeper to have a ladder 
at least fifteen feet long for use in case of fire. A fire alarm called out 
every citizen with his bucket. 

The treasurer served without compensation until 1836, when he 
was allowed a commission of 5 per cent on all moneys handled by him. 
It is noteworthy that Joseph M. Elford was elected town clerk and 
treasurer in 1856 and served without a break for 51 years—a record 
never even approached by any other public servant in the history of 
the city. 

In September, 1838, James E. Henry became the first Town 
Solicitor—at what remuneration is not clear, but later Simpson Bobo 
was granted tax exemptions in return for the service. About that 
time the council met oftener, usually in Henry and Bobo’s office. 

The First Churches The first organized congregation in the court- 
in the Village house village, the Baptists, arranged for the 

Reverend J. G. Landrum to preach to them regularly. This group 


The Courthouse Village 


59 


was officially “constituted” in 1839 by a Presbytery consisting of 
Reverends Samuel Gibson, Elias Rogers, and J. G. Landrum. The 
Baptists erected their first building on the site now occupied by the 
county jail, Richard Thomson having deeded for the purpose six- 
tenths of an acre of ground to John W. Lewis, August 19, 1836, “in 
trust for the use and in behalf of the Baptist denomination of Chris¬ 
tians, attached to the Tyger River Association.” The consideration 
was $300, and Thomson remitted $200 as a gift. 

Meanwhile the Methodist Society had been organized into a station 
of the Spartanburg Circuit of the Lincolnton District; in 1836 this 
group, which seems to have been meeting regularly for prayer-meet¬ 
ings in the home of Miss Elizabeth Wright, “the first Methodist in 
Spartanburg,” built the first church in Spartanburg. Nearly $1,200 
was raised for the erection of this church, largely through the in¬ 
strumentality of the Reverend Thomas Hutchings, one of the most 
versatile characters in the early history of the county, active equally in 
church work and cotton factory promotion. He obtained gifts from 
Charleston and Savannah and elsewhere. A flimsy little weather- 
boarded structure was erected on land deeded by George Jones, one 
of the charter members. The site on which this first building stood 
has been used by the congregation ever since, and is today occupied 
by Central Methodist Church, on North Church Street. Major A. H. 
Kirby, one of the leading citizens of a later day, in his old age, re¬ 
called the village as he remembered it from his boyhood. He moved 
to Spartanburg in 1837, when he was eight years old, and one of his 
most vivid impressions was his first view of the steeple of the Metho¬ 
dist Church—which he was later to join. It was the first church he 
had seen with a steeple. Although it was painted, it had neither ceil¬ 
ing nor plastering, and its pews were but rough benches. It had a 
high box pulpit, in which the minister was almost invisible when 
seated. 

There was no organized Presbyterian congregation in the village 
before 1843. However, in the early thirties, the Reverend Michael 
Dickson, the Reverend Zelotes Lee Holmes, and others, preached at 
intervals in the courthouse; and for several years before 1839 the 
Reverend J. L. Boggs sometimes held preaching services. Assisted 
by his wife and daughters and the teachers in the Seminary, he made 
it a practice to hold Sunday Schools. 

The Presbyterian Church of Spartanburg village was organized 


60 


A History of Spartanburg County 


on the fifth Sunday in August, 1843, the Reverend S. B'. Lewers offici¬ 
ating. The first elders were T. B. Collins and A. C. Jackson. Within 
a few months Samuel Farrow was added to this number. There were 
only eight charter members, but the church grew; and, June 5, 1844, 
a contract was signed for the erection of a church building to cost 
$1,820. The parties to this contract were: John Poole, J. C. Judd, 
and T. O. P. Vernon, Trustees Presbyterian Church Spartanburg 
Village, and Thomas L. Badget. The specifications called for the use 
of the best hard-burned brick, “the front to be finished with pressed 
brick,” and for a porch “ten feet in the clear, and four brick columns 
to support the roof.” The dimensions were 62 feet 4 inches in length, 
42 feet 4 inches in width, 20 feet from floor to ceiling. This building 
was erected in a grove of oak trees on the north side of East Main 
Street between Liberty and Converse streets, on a tract purchased 
from Richard Thomson. 

The Building The first mention of a school in the village is found 
of Schools j n a ^eed “j une 3 i ” 1829, for thirty-two acres of 

ground “near the village of Spartanburg on the road leading from the 
courthouse to McKie’s old mill.” This tract of land was conveyed in 
trust by Robert Goldthwaite to Elisha Bomar, James E. Henry, 
George Jones, Jesse Cleveland, James Hunt, Thomas Poole, William 
Trimmier, Willson Nesbitt, Andrew B. Moore, John Crawford, Rob¬ 
ert M. Young, Simpson Bobo, and Lewis Hunter, trustees of the Spar¬ 
tanburg Village Academy. The stipulation was made that as soon as 
practical these trustees should erect on it “a suitable building for an 
academy.” Goldthwaite was paid $150 cash for this land. Probably 
no building was erected, for records show that, January 8, 1835, 
James E. Henry, in consideration of $1, conveyed to the trustees of 
the Spartanburg Male Academy of Spartanburg District, ground “on 
which the brick academy is now located.” No records exist to prove 
when this building was constructed, but the site was not on the Goldth¬ 
waite tract, but on a location now intersected by Henry Street, be¬ 
tween Union and Kennedy streets. The building had one story and 
in dimension it measured 30x50 feet. It was divided into two rooms 
with a ten-foot hall separating them, and was shaded by stately oaks. 
The trustees in 1835 were: Simpson Bobo, Jesse Cleveland, William 
W. Harris, William Walker, Robert M. Young, James Hunt, George 
Jones, Sr., Elisha Bomar, Thomas Poole, Wilson Nesbitt, A. B. 
Moore, John Crawford, and John W. Lewis. The Male Academy 


The Courthouse Village 


61 


had numbers of boarding pupils from other parts of the State. Its 
teachers included graduates of high-grade colleges—notably W. M. 
Irwin, of Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland. 

The Female Seminary was founded at about the same time, and 
with the same motives as the Male Academy. It was established by 
subscription, the largest amount pledged being $150, and the total 
amounting to $1,300. The subscribers were: H. J. Dean, George 
Jones, E. Bomar, W. Walker, W. W. Harris, W. T. Jones, Jesse 
Cleveland, James E. Henry, R. M. Young, E. F. Smith, G. B. Brim, 
John Boggs. 

October 5, 1835, Hosea J. Dean and Simpson Bobo sold to the 
trustees for $1,300 the dwelling of Dean and five acres of ground on 
the northwest corner of East Main and Dean streets, the present-day 
site of the First Baptist church. The school had a portico supported 
by two large columns, and was surmounted by a small belfry. A walk, 
bordered with jonquils, led to the front gate, and a lombardy poplar 
grew beside the gate. The house was “quite pretentious for a town 
no larger than Spartanburg.” The Reverend John Boggs and his 
family conducted this school for four years. 


Miss Phoebe Paine I n 1839 the trustees secured for the Female 
and Her Methods Seminary Miss Phoebe Paine, a native of Port¬ 
land, Me., and a graduate of Miss Willard’s Seminary. She brought 
accomplished assistants with her, and under her tutelage the school 
reached its zenith. A twelve-year-old girl from Charleston, Eugenia 
C. Murrell, entered the preparatory department of this Seminary in 
1839. This pupil became, in her turn, an educational leader in Cali¬ 
fornia—founding the Poston School; and, after her death, the Eu¬ 
genia Poston Club published a memorial volume in her honor contain¬ 
ing a tribute she paid to Miss Phoebe Paine: “I have never known 
a system better adapted to form character, to develop the crude girl 
into the efficient, loyal woman, than that followed in this institution.” 
The sort of education and stimulus given here one hundred years ago 
to Eugenia Murrell Poston was described by her to the Poston School 
pupils as follows: 


The system adopted in our school in California was based upon 
Miss Paine’s, of which the principal features were the daily open¬ 
ing of the school with Bible reading and the Lord’s Prayer; the 
respect shown by the teachers to students, consulting with them on 
matters of general interest to the school; the encouragement of a 


62 


A History of Spartanburg County 


feeling of class loyalty, an altruistic, “Help one another spirit” 
among them; thorough teaching in elementary branches, drawing 
maps, etc.; provision for healthful play as well as for study, 
botany in the woods and on the hillsides, astronomy under star-lit 
skies; May-day festivals; Friday evening gatherings, at which a 
“Class Paper” was read once a month. In introducing each feature 
into our school, I had the advantage of a practical knowledge of 
its effects upon the girls twenty years before. And girls are girls, 
whether living in the first or last half of the nineteenth century. 

You see here what the influence of a teacher is; how it is trans¬ 
mitted from one generation to another. If you have derived any 
benefit from the Poston School, such benefit is largely due to Miss 
Paine—-a teacher whom you never saw. 

A Journey Mary Owen, a young woman not quite seventeen 

from Washington years old, had been a pupil of Miss Phoebe Paine 
to Spartanburg j n c ar ii s i e . Miss Paine visited the Owen family, 
in the city of Washington, and persuaded this favorite pupil to ac¬ 
company her to Spartanburg as an assistant teacher. On the morn¬ 
ing of February 28, 1839, Miss Paine, Mary Owen, and another as¬ 
sistant, Miss Webb, left Washington for Spartanburg—a distance of 
500 miles. Mary Owen’s account of her journey is recorded in her 
diary, and it exemplifies how remote Spartanburg was. These three 
gently reared women traveled day and night by steamboat, train, and 
stagecoach, reaching Spartanburg late in the afternoon of March 6. 
Some of the roads were snow-covered; others rutted and muddy, so 
that the stage passengers had to walk to lighten the load for the 
horses. At junction points they built fires in the open and huddled 
about them to get warm. 

In her diary Miss Owen wrote: “The four days and nights from 
the time of reaching the terminus of the railroad until we reached 
Union, S. C., seemed like a phantasm—a horrid dream. During 
that time we never saw a bed or stopped a moment except to dine, 
breakfast, or sup. During much of the time Miss Paine and Miss 
Webb slept. ... I never slept.” 

If the writer had not been properly dressed for a journey she 
would have suffered more. She wore a heavy coat, over that a fur 
cape, and fur-lined shoes. A close-fitting lace cap kept her hair 
smooth, and a quilted black satin hood protected her head and neck 
against the cold. She carried an “immense muff.” 

Such was the most convenient mode of travel in the thirties and 
forties. Two of the brave women who endured the hardships of this 


The Courthouse Village 


63 


journey married local citizens. Mary Owen became Mrs. Hosea 
Dean and Miss Webb married Dr. R. M. Daniel. Both have many 
descendants in the county. 


Growth and 
Improvement 


The “handsome jail of soapstone and granite,” the 
presumably more handsome second courthouse, the 
churches, and the schools, all transformed the village. During the 
years following its incorporation the town continued to grow stead¬ 
ily, although not spectacularly. In 1843 the council granted leave 
to citizens on Main Street, “toward Bomar’s and Gillespie’s,” to lay 
off sidewalks four feet wide. At a meeting of the council, February 
24, 1837, “it was ordered and ratified that the Clerk be required to 
call on one good surveyor and have the town surveyed and have a 
platt made of the same, showing the location, breadth, etc., of all 
the roads, streets and alleys within the incorporate limits . . . 
Council ordered that Daniel White be employed as Surveyor.” This 
plat, if made, has disappeared. October 2, 1838, council ordered a 
well dug “in the center of the Public Square.” Presumably, up to 
this time, the spring and its branch had sufficed. 

Fir,t The town had its first newspaper in 1842, the Spartan- 

Newspapers burg Journal, founded by Asa Muir. This paper con¬ 
tinued little longer than a year, but was soon followed by the Spartan, 
founded March 1, 1843, by Z. D. Cottrell, who came to Spartanburg 
from Edgefield to teach school. This weekly paper had a very cred¬ 
itable history; it was alert in advertising the advantages of Spartan¬ 
burg, and in attempting to shape and inform public opinion; and it 
has preserved for posterity the most detailed picture of the town— 
its history and growth—in existence today. 

Inns Before During the forties the Mansion House, owned by R. C. 
1850 Poole, was “carried on by part of his own family in 

plain decent Style.” It accommodated travelers and boarders at “the 
regular County Tavern prices.” Poole especially solicited the pat¬ 
ronage of stock drovers, providing suitable lots for wagons and shelter 
for horses, free except at “public times,” and selling corn and fodder 
at the lowest prices. 

The Mansion House stood on the square, and was the commercial 
hotel of its day. The Walker House stood about where the Franklin 
Hotel now stands, and was especially commended to summer visitors; 
for in the forties the people of the lower part of the State began to 


64 


A History of Spartanburg County 


find in the climate of Spartanburg a delightful change in summer. 
Among the notables who patronized it was the family of William 
Gilmore Simms. Thomson’s Spring, a mile and a half east of town, 
was a tempting objective for a walk or a buggy ride or a picnic. 

Trade and The stores did much business by barter, and advertised 
Barter f 0 r sa i e j ar( j } mountain cheese, wool, feathers, and tallow, 
as well as silks, leghorn straw, hoop-skirts, and other luxuries brought 
from the markets by enterprising local merchants. Merchants of 
Columbia and Charleston advertised in the columns of the Spartan; 
and its editor boasted that the paper served a territory which included 
Spartanburg and Union, and large parts of Laurensville, Greenville, 
and York districts, and the adjacent counties in North Carolina, and 
that Spartanburg was a trading center for large areas of Tennessee 
and Georgia. 

Conventions Conventions were great occasions in the old times. In 
ante-bellum days private entertainment was provided locally for all 
delegates. In 1843 the town, although it had a population of less than 
1,000, entertained the State Temperance Convention for three days— 
August 2-4. Dr. Landrum, writing about 1890, characterized this 
convention as “probably the largest body from various Districts in 
the State that had ever assembled in the present City of Spartan¬ 
burg.” Three hundred twenty-seven delegates attended, from all parts 
of South Carolina, and from Henderson County and Davidson College 
in North Carolina. The public programs were given in the grove near 
the Walker House. The Spartanburg Village Washington Society 
erected the stand and seats. Spartanburg District had at this time 
twenty-four organizations. 

In 1848 the Methodists entertained the Annual Conference. This 
appears to have been the second State-wide gathering held in Spar¬ 
tanburg. Every home shared in the pleasure and benefit of both these 
meetings, for every citizen kept open house on such occasions and 
every bed was made available, not merely in the town but in all com¬ 
munities within easy driving distance. 

Court The social life of the village rose to its highest level on such 
Week occasions as “Court Week,” which periodically brought to the 
town a group of the State’s leading lawyers. B. F. Perry entertain¬ 
ingly described the lawyers’ mode of travel from one court to another 
in the horse and buggy days. Usually they rode in light carriages or 




Glenn Springs Hotel, Built in 1836 


The Walker House, Later the Piedmont House, Built in the 
Early Forties, Burned in 1882 







The Palmetto House 


In the early days, a sloping lawn surrounded the Palmetto House, extending to 
the Public Ground. On gala occasions, such as military or circus parades and 
public speakings, the balconies were reserved for the ladies. During Court 
Week this inn was the headquarters for visiting lawyers and the scene of an 
annual dinner to the presiding judge. In it gay May Day parties were held, 
and railroad banquets. It was the scene in April 1856, of a “Social Party” 
given by Spartans in honor of the visiting Washington Light Infantry of 
Charleston. It was the scene in January 1880 of the “First Leap Year Sociable 
of Spartanburg.” This picture was made in the ’80's when Becker’s Oyster 
Saloon and Ice Cream Parlor was the social center of the city. The old inn 
was replaced in the early ’90’s with the Palmetto Building erected by the 
Duncan Syndicate, at North Church and East Main Streets. 
















The: Courthouse: Village: 


65 


buggies, sometimes horseback, and carried lunch baskets. At the 
noon hour they stopped at some attractive spot on the roadside where 
there was a spring, unhitched their horses, and rested for an hour or 
so. When it was possible to do so, they planned their itinerary so as 
to stop in the middle of the day at an inn. Some of Perry’s letters 
to his wife, during such trips, amusingly pictured his experiences. 
Repeatedly he told her how much enjoyment her gingerbread and 
pound cake afforded his friends, and how quickly they were consumed. 

As the lawyers thus journeyed together they formed warm friend¬ 
ships, which led to interchanges of visits among their families. The 
circuit court system thus rendered an important service in establish¬ 
ing and strengthening social bonds which knit the courthouse towns 
together and promoted homogeneity within the State. 


CHAPTER SIX 

The Old Iron District 


The Old Public speakers and newspapers began, during the 

Iron District th i rties> to call Spartanburg The Old Iron District— 
a merited appellation, for the first iron works in the State were erected 
in it, on Lawson’s Fork, in 1773; and forges and small furnaces were 
operated at several places in it, during the years immediately follow¬ 
ing the Revolution. On branches of Tyger River Michael Miller, 
Samuel Nesbitt, William and Solliman Hill, and the Galbraiths had 
forges. William and Sanford Smith had a forge on Dutchman’s 
Creek, and were famed gunsmiths. William Clark and William 
Poole operated on branches of the Pacolet River. But the organiza¬ 
tion of two strong companies, in the early thirties, established the 
preeminence of Spartanburg in iron production. In 1856 Spartan¬ 
burg had four of the eight important furnaces in the State. 

Extent and Location l r0 n ores, limestone, forests, and water power 
of Iron Area were the essentials of iron production; and all 

of these occurred close together in that section of the county which 
justified calling it “The Old Iron District.” As a matter of fact, 
York was, almost equally with Spartanburg, entitled to the appel¬ 
lation. The heart of the iron beds lay within the area on each 
side of Broad River between the North Carolina line and Smith’s 
Ford. Within the iron district lay a part of Union County, prac¬ 
tically all of Cherokee, a small strip of the present-day Spartan¬ 
burg, and a wide strip of York. The ores were of several varieties. 
In the same area were quantities of limestone for fluxing, quartz 
rocks and beds of fire clay for furnace-building, as well as extensive 
forests to furnish charcoal; and all these in combination furnished a 
basis for a great industry. Added to these advantages was the situa¬ 
tion on the Broad River and its tributaries, which supplied unlimited 
w r ater power for operating machinery, and supplied a means for trans¬ 
porting the product to market. 

Magnetic and specular ores in inexhaustible quantities were found 
on the west slope of Kings Mountain, extending into York, Union, 
and Spartanburg. The magnetic ore was commonly called “gray” 
ore, and made the best iron for bar iron or castings; the hematite ore 
was commonly called “brown” ore, and, although somewhat inferior 


66 


The Old Iron District 


67 


in quality, was more abundant and cheaper. It was made usually 
into pig iron. The ore was not mined, but was dug from the sur¬ 
face. 

Wofford’s In 1773 Joseph Buffington, iron master, erected 

Iron Works a bloomery on Lawson’s Fork because he found 
there water power, iron ore, and abundant forest lands—all necessary 
to iron production. He also met with encouragement from the in¬ 
habitants, who were glad to be able to buy pots and pans and farm 
implements at home, and equally glad to find a cash market for their 
wood. Almost every farmer had a pit for burning charcoal to sell at 
the iron works. 

The lands Buffington bought and leased for his plant lay in the 
region claimed by North and South Carolina before the running of 
the boundary line in 1772, and he had much trouble about his titles, 
for William Wofford had established his claim to the iron works tract 
on the basis of North Carolina grants. Buffington apparently operated 
with borrowed capital, and soon lost control of the iron works, which 
became known as Wofford’s Iron Works, and kept that name in 
popular speech until burned by Bloody Bill Cunningham in November 
1781. After that it was for a time called the “old iron works.” 

In 1776 Buffington borrowed more than 6,000 pounds from the 
State to complete his plant. William Henry Drayton and many local 
patriots of influence endorsed his request for this loan, because they 
knew that iron goods were necessary to the conduct of war. It is 
noteworthy that, at this and other iron works built later in Spartan 
District, weapons and ammunition were manufactured for use in the 
Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, the Mexican War, and the 
War Between the States. 

In 1778 William Wofford sold a three-fourths interest in the iron 
works built by Buffington to Simon and John Berwick and Charles 
Elliott of Charles Town, and for a brief time the name “Berwick’s 
Iron Works” was used. The record of when the works were rebuilt 
and how Buffington regained control of the plant has not been found, 
but in 1785 an act of the legislature ordered the sale of Buffington’s 
Iron Works, to satisfy the unpaid debt on them. Possibly at this sale 
William Poole acquired the works, for there can be little doubt that 
this same site (which is today Glendale) was that of Poole’s Iron 
Works. 


68 


A History of Spartanburg County 


Expansion of the The two largest of the iron manufacturing com- 
Ir°n Industry: panies were developed from the furnaces of two 

Graham and Black men —Moses Stroup and Willson Nesbitt. Nes¬ 
bitt was operating furnaces before Stroup, but the company which 
bought and developed Stroup’s little furnaces into a great enterprise 
was organized before Nesbitt’s company. 

Moses Stroup built his first furnaces on Kings Creek in 1822, and 
two years later he built a forge on the Broad River. He sold his fur¬ 
naces two years after that to a company of well-to-do men, who or¬ 
ganized, under the leadership of Emor Graham, the corporation called 
E. Graham and Company. Associated with Graham were James A. 
Black, Jacob Deal, P. R. Brice, and David Johnson. The town of 
Blacksburg was named for James Black. In 1832 these men deter¬ 
mined to get a charter from the legislature, to enlarge their capital, 
and to change the name of their company and call it the South Caro¬ 
lina Manufacturing Company. Four years after that, they did the 
same thing again, this time capitalizing their company at what was 
a large sum for the time, $200,000, and changing their name to the 
Kings Mountain Iron Manufacturing Company. They built much 
larger furnaces and enlarged operations by building a rolling mill, as 
well as puddling furnaces, blast furnaces, and forges. They bought 
thousands of acres of land and more than a hundred slaves. They 
not only built iron works, but also cotton gins, sawmills, dwellings for 
the operatives and slaves. They owned many horses, mules, cows, 
and pigs, and operated company stores at their different plants. 

Willson Nesbitt’s Willson Nesbitt was operating a furnace and a 
Operations forge near the Cowpens battleground and the 

Limestone Springs as early as 1811. When he saw the enterprises of 
Graham and Black and their associates, he determined to form a com¬ 
pany and enlarge his operations as these men were doing. So, in 
1835, the Nesbitt Iron Manufacturing Company was chartered by 
the legislature, with a capital stock of $100,000. Willson Nesbitt, 
Wade Hampton, and Franklin H. Elmore were the chief stock¬ 
holders. They were three of the wealthiest men in the State, and had 
good credit with the State Bank. They borrowed money from it and 
began to enlarge their plant to rival that of the Kings Mountain Com¬ 
pany. They bought many slaves, thousands of acres of land, and costly 
new machinery. 

One of the most interesting things they did was to build a wooden 


The Old Iron District 


69 


railroad from their furnace on the side of Thicketty Mountain to a 
point five miles away. In the furnace they made pig iron, which was 
then loaded into wagons on the wooden tramway. These wagons were 
drawn by mules which were so well trained that some of them could 
make the trip to the end of the wooden road without a driver. From 
the end of this road the wagons were drawn over a dirt road several 
more miles to the plant at Hurricane Shoals—the site today of Clifton 
Mill Number One. At this place the company had a puddling furnace, 
a foundry, and a rolling mill. The pig iron was again cooked in 
the puddling furnace and made into great balls of iron of a better 
quality than the pig iron. These balls were then melted or hammered 
and were used to make all sorts of tools and household implements, 
or were sent on to the rolling mill where they were rolled into sheet 
iron, or made into tacks, nails, wire, and the like. 

Difficulties and But all the time both of these companies were hav- 
Reorgamzations j n g fj nanc i a i difficulties. The Nesbitt Company 
especially had trouble because it had arranged to borrow from the 
Bank of the State a large sum of money, and, with the promise of 
this money, bought more than it was able to pay for without the 
loan. When in 1837 there was a financial panic, the Bank found itself 
unable to make the promised loans. In spite of getting some govern¬ 
ment orders for cannon balls and other supplies for the use of the 
Army and Navy, both companies had a hard time. 

Besides money troubles, the problem of fuel, as the years passed, 
proved a troublesome one to all of the iron makers. They kept cutting 
down the trees and burning them into charcoal without planning care¬ 
fully for new growth. Even though farmers brought in charcoal by 
the wagonload, yet the supply was not sufficient, and prices went up 
on it so as to reduce the profits. One of the iron makers begged the 
legislature to push the building of railroads and the clearing of rivers 
so as to enable manufacturers to buy mineral coal and charcoal from 
other parts of the country. 

Finally, in 1850, the Nesbitt Iron Company was sold in bankruptcy 
proceedings. It was bought by a company who reorganized it under 
a new name, The Swedish Iron Manufacturing Company. When it 
was sold, its inventory showed that the company had more than 
10,000 acres of land valued at about $15,000; improvements, which 
included dwellings, buildings and machinery, valued at $75,000; 105 
slaves valued at more than $100,000; and stock and supplies valued at 


70 


A History of Spartanburg County 


about $8,000. Some of the stockholders brought a suit under a re¬ 
newed charter of the South Carolina Manufacturing Company, by 
which they were able to regain control of most of the Nesbitt proper¬ 
ties which had been put into the company. This South Carolina 
Manufacturing Company continued to operate until after the War 
Between the States. 

The Swedish Company did not prosper, and the foreigners who 
operated it withdrew, chiefly because of the scarcity of fuel. They 
tried to mine by sinking shafts to obtain better ore, but did not find 
this practice profitable. Soon the Swedish Company broke up, and 
in 1863 its properties were bought and it was reorganized as the 
Magnetic Iron Company. If the war had not created a greatly in¬ 
creased market for its products, this reorganized company might also 
have had to close. But, as things turned out, every one of the 
struggling iron works had more orders than they could fill, from the 
Confederate government. They made shot, shell, cannon balls, tools, 
and all sorts of special equipment. The cupola furnace at Bivings- 
ville, which was one of the smaller plants, made bowie knives for 
Confederate soldiers. 

Collapse of the The iron industry, which was so invaluable to the 
Iron Industry Confederate cause, was one of the casualties of the 

war. The abolition of slavery destroyed fully half of the invested 
capital, for all of the companies owned slaves who were skilled 
artisans. The iron masters had been paid by the Confederate govern¬ 
ment in bonds which the outcome of the war rendered valueless. Their 
machinery had been worn out by four years of pressure production. 
The charcoal supply was rapidly diminishing. After the war there 
was no immediate market for iron goods because not many of the 
farmers and mill owners who would have been glad to be purchasers 
had anything with which to pay for new equipment. 

All of these circumstances would have been enough to check the 
South Carolina iron industry, in spite of the recognized fact that the 
iron products made here were of excellent quality. But another 
situation made impossible the revival of the iron industry in this 
State; new iron works were being built in Western Pennsylvania, 
West Virginia, and Indiana, where rich iron ores were found alongside 
abundant supplies of cheap coal. These enterprises had the advan¬ 
tages of better ore and cheaper, more abundant fuel, and were able 
to secure cooperation with the new railroads being promoted. They 


The Old Iron District 


71 


provided a competition which the South Carolina manufacturers could 
not meet. 

Transition to At last cotton manufacturing entirely replaced the 
a New Industry [ ron industry. Great cotton mills were built to 
utilize the water power which had operated the iron masters’ bellows 
and stamping machines and rolling mills. The Kings Mountain 
Iron Company’s plant became the site of the Cherokee Falls Cotton 
Factory. What had been Wofford’s Iron Works, became, in 1835, 
Bivingsville—a seat for all sorts of manufacturing, as was customary 
at that period, but with an imposing cotton mill as its main under¬ 
taking. A cupola furnace at Bivingsville was used during the sixties 
to make bowie knives, crude swords, and war-time tools for the Con¬ 
federacy; but after the war, iron making was abandoned at this his¬ 
toric site. Known successively as Buffington’s Iron Works, Wofford’s 
Iron Works, and Bivingsville, it was again, in 1878, renamed. D. E. 
Converse, one of the greatest of South Carolina’s cotton manu¬ 
facturers, rebuilt and greatly enlarged the Bivingsville Cotton Mill, 
and gave the village the name Glendale. Two years later this same 
D. E. Converse bought the Hurricane Shoals site of the South Caro¬ 
lina Iron Manufacturing Company and renamed it Clifton. The Hur¬ 
ricane Shoals power soon turned the machinery of a million-dollar 
cotton mill—one of the two largest in the State. Two other great 
cotton mills in Spartanburg County—the Startex plant at Tucapau, 
and the Pacific Mills plant at Lyman—occupy sites where in early 
days small iron works were carried on by Willson Nesbitt and Michael 
Miller. 

Vestiges Nearly one hundred years have passed since those old 
and Relics i ron mas (; ers se nt their sales managers to peddle iron 
wares through the Carolinas and Georgia. These men had in their 
charge trustworthy slaves who drove trains of wagons, loaded with 
pots, pans, kettles, plows, hoes, and nails. Some of the wares thus 
sold are to this day treasured as heirlooms by old families in Spar¬ 
tanburg and elsewhere; as are, also, wrought iron fencing, quaint 
andirons, and huge pots—all products of the once prosperous manu¬ 
facturing establishments of The Old Iron District. 

On the side of Thicketty Mountain is a road known locally as 
“The Old Furnace Road.” It leads to the “Old Furnace Place,” 
which is situated in Cherokee County about eight miles from the 
Cowpens Battleground. That spot is the best preserved of the iron- 


72 


A History of Spartanburg County 


making sites. No vestige remains of the furnace itself; a gentle 
stream trickles over a dam made of large rocks, known to have been 
built in 1811. In this way power was provided to operate the bellows 
and the grist and sawmills which stood there. Quantities of slag and 
cinders are all about. Once there were more, but great loads of these 
materials have been hauled away for use in laying new roadbeds. 
Ugly hollows and gashes in the surrounding country show where 
were once the iron pits from which rocks were dug. On a hill may 
still be seen the large boarding house which housed the foreman and 
skilled employees. Once fifty or more cabins for the slaves were 
clustered about the big house; but not one now remains. 

The once familiar fact that this region used to be called The Old 
Iron District is almost forgotten; and few indeed are those who 
have visited the “Old Furnace Place” to see for themselves its scanty 
reminders of what was, one hundred years ago, the leading industry 
of the South Carolina Piedmont area. 


CHAPTER SEVEN 


Looms and Spindles 

Beginnings of Although iron making was begun sooner in Spartan- 
Cotton Mills burg and gave the district its picturesque appellation, 
“The Old Iron District,” cotton manufacturing was the industry 
which eventually insured for Spartanburg wealth and culture. This 
was an outcome not foreseen before the Civil War. 

The first settlers planted a little cotton, and made it into cloth in 
their homes—every step in the process of transforming the raw cotton 
into cloth being carried on by hand before Eli Whitney’s gins were 
set up in South Carolina. Spinning wheels and hand looms were 
operated in most homes in the first fifty or more years of Spartanburg 
history. During these years the transition proceeded steadily though 
slowly from the making of raw cotton into cloth in the homes to¬ 
ward the eventual abandonment of all domestic weaving or spinning. 
Sometimes, after the first mills were built, farmers carried their cotton 
to a mill to be carded and took the carded rolls home. There the 
women and girls of the household spun it into thread for knitting, and 
wove it into homespun cloth. There were men and women who lived 
by the trade of weaving. 

Some of the first mills were adapted only for carding wool and 
cotton. Later most mills were able to spin the cotton into thread; 
and it was then woven in the homes. Few early mills were even 
equipped with looms, and none could weave all the thread they spun. 
Every large plantation had looms and skilled weavers. During the 
War Between the States, all of the cloth woven by the mills was used 
by the government, because the output was limited. 

Cotton mills were established in the lower part of the State long 
before the first mills were built in the Up Country, but the excellent 
water power of the region soon gave the Piedmont a supremacy 
which it still holds. The first mills in the Up Country were built 
on the waters of Tyger River in Spartanburg District between 1816 
and 1818 by two groups of New Englanders. One of these groups 
was led by the Hill brothers and the other by the Weaver brothers, 
and the honor of operating the first cotton factory in the county has 
been claimed for each group by their descendants. Unfortunately, 
neither family can establish such a claim by clear documentary evi- 

73 


74 


A History of Spartanburg County 


dence, and traditions are contradictory. Both groups came from 
Rhode Island in 1816, both built small mills, and both mills—tradition 
runs—were twice burned and twice rebuilt. The Weaver factory 
ceased operations in 1826, but the Hills continued, with varying 
fortunes, to operate a cotton factory on Tyger River until after the 
Civil War. 

The South Carolina It is quite clear that the Weavers used as a firm 
Cotton Manufactory name « the gouth Carolina Cotton Manu¬ 
factory.” Court records show that Benjamin Wofford, in 1818, lent 
money to the Weavers; that Wofford sold the South Carolina Cotton 
Manufactory, with 489 spindles and sixty acres of land, to Nathaniel 
Gist in 1818; that the Weavers confessed a judgment of $12,000 to 
Nathaniel Gist and W. G. Davis in 1819; and that Nathaniel Gist 
deeded the property to Barham Bobo in 1826. 

Some fragments of the Weaver account books were preserved, 
and from them a few facts can be established, such as names of the 
men first employed, and approximate dates and costs of first products. 
These books do not contain mention of a firm name. In them appear 
the names of four members of the Weaver family—Philip, Lindsay, 
John, and Wilbur. Philip seems to have been the leader of the group. 
Others who came with the Weavers were Thomas Hutchings, Thomas 
Slack, William Bates, William Ralph—all of them apparently as em¬ 
ployes of the Weaver brothers. One of John Weaver’s books con¬ 
tains this significant entry: “The following is the price of yarn in 
1818 when the Burnt Factory first started on Tyger River in Spar¬ 
tanburg, S. C. No. 6, 66 cents per pound—$3.30 per bunch; No. 7, 
69 cents per pound—$3.40 per bunch; . . . No. 16, 96 cents per 
pound—$4.80 per bunch.” This entry was apparently made from 
memory by John Weaver after he had removed to Greenville County 
and established a mill on Thompson’s Beaverdam Creek there. 

Although the indications are that the mill changed ownership more 
than once, the Weavers continued to operate it until possibly 1826. 
Nathaniel Gist, April 3, 1826, sold to “Barrum Bobo for $2,500 three 
tracts of land, on one of which was situated the late Manufactory called 
Weavers,” and on another was situated “the late South Carolina 
Manufactory”—the presumption being that one of these sites was that 
of the “burnt factory” of the Weavers. 

It seems possible—but is a matter of surmise—that a second fire 
and the general failure of the Weavers to adjust themselves to the 


Looms and Spindles 


75 


locality accounted for their abandonment, at this time, of the enter¬ 
prise. Philip and Lindsay Weaver left the State. In a significant 
passage of one of his letters, Philip Weaver throws much light on 
social attitudes which affected his happiness in the South: “I wish 
to leave this part of the country and wish to settle myself and family 
in a free state, where myself and family will not be looked down upon 
with contempt because I am opposed to the abominable practice of 
slavery.” 

Common usage fixed the names of their operators on both the 
pioneer factories on Tyger River. The name Burnt Factory was at¬ 
tached not to the Weaver factory but to the Hill factory. That mill 
was not on the river itself, but on a tributary stream. To this day a 
county road retains in common language its old name, the Burnt 
Factory Road, and the bridge is yet spoken of by older citizens as the 
Burnt Factory Bridge, although in reality a re-survey of the road 
when it was paved led to the changing of the site of the bridge and of 
the road at this point, so that the site of the factory is no longer on 
the road named for it. 

The Industry Man- Although “The Industry Manufacturing Com- 
ufactunng Company pany” seems to have been the official name of 
the Hill family’s factory, it rarely appears in records or traditions. 
This group included George and Leonard Hill, William B. Sheldon, 
John Clark, and James Edward Henry, and possibly others. The 
traditions concerning their operations indicate that they were free 
from the financial difficulties which so embarrassed the Weavers. 
Family stories have been handed down of how the machinery was 
shipped from New England and hauled from Charleston by wagons— 
a strenuous undertaking. The first mill erected is said to have had 
700 spindles, and four looms. The machinery and its operation ex¬ 
cited such interest throughout the surrounding region that the place 
was constantly thronged with visitors. The Hills, like the Weavers, 
suffered two losses by fire, and had no insurance ; but they recovered 
each time and continued their enterprise. 

Indications are that the Hills operated as a stock company, and 
it may be that it was by taking in partners they were enabled to re¬ 
build and resume operations after their fires. Leonard Hill apparently 
always held the controlling interest. In 1820 William Sheldon re¬ 
tired from the firm; and in 1825 George Hill sold his share, return¬ 
ing to Rhode Island. The firm then became Hill and Clark, and so 


76 


A History of Spartanburg County 


remained until 1830, when Clark sold his interest to Leonard Hill, 
who thereby became sole owner. On December 17, 1835, a charter 
was granted to the South Carolina Manufacturing Company, the 
list of incorporators reading “James Edward Henry, Leonard Hill, 
James Nesbitt, Jr., Simpson Bobo, and others who now are or here¬ 
after may be members.” According to the records of the Hill family, 
Leonard Hill retained control—if not sole ownership—of Hill’s 
Factory, as the common name for it always ran, until his death in 
1840. At that time it fell into the hands of his four oldest sons— 
James, Albert, Whipple, and Leonard. About 1845 or 1846 James 
and Albert bought the interest of the other two brothers and operated 
the factory until 1866, when they sold the machinery but not the 
lands of the mill to Nesbitt and Wright. The machinery was then 
removed to a site at Mountain Shoals on Enoree and used in 
setting up a new factory, the Barksdale Factory. 

The Hill factory was so small in 1847 as to fall presumably 
among the “several minor establishments in the back country,” ac¬ 
cording to a survey of the cotton mills of the State published that year 
in the Columbia Telegraph. Yet in the fifties Hill’s Factory was ad¬ 
vertising the quality of its work, and was stressing its “seamless woven 
pictorial counterpanes.” During the Civil War it was listed with 
Bivingsville as turning in valuable supplies to the Confederate Govern¬ 
ment. 

The Story of The life of William Bates exemplifies an era of cot- 
William Bates ton manu f ac t U ring. He was born in 1800 in Rhode 
Island, the son of a poor farmer. At the age of eight he was put to 
work in Green’s Cotton Factory—the second of its sort in the United 
States, Slater’s, near by, being the first. At that time these mills made 
only yarn; in fact, there was not in the United States then a power 
loom. Bates worked next for Senator De Wolf of Rhode Island, 
whom he described as a “celebrated United States senator and slave- 
trader.” In 1812 he worked in Sprague’s factory which operated day 
and night, Sundays too, to keep up with the demand. In 1819, with 
$17 in his pocket, he left Rhode Island to try his fortune in the South, 
and landed in Charleston with $2 in his possession. But he had an 
overcoat, and this he sold to the stage driver to pay for his passage 
to what he later designated as the Burnt Factory. He worked there 
for two years without receiving a cent of pay, and then he obtained 
employment with Hill and Clark. He worked for them two or three 


Looms and Spindles 


77 


years, and saved over $500. During this time he had married and he 
determined to attempt to better his fortunes by establishing a factory. 
He found partners in Colonel Downs and Hugh Wilson and set up a 
mill on Rabun’s Creek in Laurens District, which turned out a dis¬ 
astrous failure and he lost all of the money he had saved. He then 
went to Lincolnton, North Carolina, and worked there for Hoke and 
Bivings for a time. Returning to South Carolina he bought at 
sheriff’s sale the mill built in upper Greenville District by John 
Weaver and operated it for a time. Then he moved to Lester’s 
Factory and entered into a partnership with Lester and Kilgore. 
Soon he exchanged his interest in this factory with Kilgore for a small 
mill Kilgore owned on Rocky Branch; and at this place Bates, in 
partnership with Cox and Hammet, founded Batesville. So suc¬ 
cessful was this factory that during the Civil War it was sold to 
George Trenholm and others, of Charleston, for $340,000. With the 
money thus obtained, Bates bought lands and established permanently 
the prosperity of his descendants. So able a man was William Bates 
that a keen observer and close friend of his for forty years was sur¬ 
prised to learn after his death that he could neither read nor write and 
signed his name mechanically. Although he made a career for him¬ 
self in Greenville District, Bates first worked in three Spartanburg 
factories. 

The Career of More romantic, but less successful from a 
Thomas Hutchings ma terial standpoint, was the career of another 
of the New Englanders who came to Spartanburg in 1816 and partici¬ 
pated in the textile and cultural development of the Piedmont. This 
was Thomas Hutchings, who after the failure of the Weavers, with 
whom he came South, built a small cotton factory at Lester’s Ford on 
Enoree River. This mill was operating in 1822. No doubt Philip Les¬ 
ter furnished the capital for this enterprise, and it was soon known as 
Lester’s Mill. At an early date Josiah Kilgore bought an interest in 
this mill, and its operations were greatly enlarged. Its name was 
changed to Buena Vista, and under the joint ownership of Kilgore and 
Lester it consumed about 500 bales a year, producing quantities of 
yarn which not only sufficed for local barter but were distributed in 
wagons through Western North Carolina, East Tennessee and lower 
South Carolina. One important item of the Tennessee trade was the 
flax brought from that region to the mill and made into flax thread 
for shoe makers and also into linen cloth. Much of this weaving was 


78 


A History of Spartanburg County 


done in the homes, and the factory had a standard rate of payment 
for such weaving, giving a skein of cotton thread ready for weaving 
in exchange for the weaving of a yard of linen cloth. 

Thomas Hutchings seems to have had special talents as a pro¬ 
moter, starting enterprises and then passing on to new fields. He 
started a small factory in Greenville District in 1833, which he 
abandoned to undertake a factory at Cedar Hill, which was known as 
the South Tyger Manufactory. Capital for this enterprise was sup¬ 
plied by Simpson Bobo, James McMakin, and David W. Moore, but 
the management seems to have been entrusted to Hutchings. Soon 
the affairs of the mill were involved, litigation ensued, and Hutchings 
was the loser. Soon afterwards—and apparently as an outcome of 
this matter—he was removed from the ministry of the South Caro¬ 
lina Conference of the Methodist Church. He had been exceedingly 
popular as a preacher, as well as mill promoter. After his unfortunate 
experience at Cedar Hill, Hutchings removed to Georgia, and there 
became a minister of the Protestant Methodist Church. He died in 
Savannah, April 27, 1869, and his body was brought to his former 
home and buried beside that of his wife in Mount Pleasant Grave¬ 
yard, thirteen miles west of Spartanburg. 

Dr. James Bivings The first large mill in the District was that 
and His Mills which came to be called the Bivingsville Cotton 

Factory. All of the mills which preceded it were small and meagerly 
equipped. Its erection may, then, be regarded as a milestone in the 
textile history of Spartanburg—and indeed of the State, because tex¬ 
tile operations have gone on at the same place uninterruptedly ever 
since its erection. This is a record rivalled only by that of the Pendle¬ 
ton Manufacturing Company of Anderson County. 

Steps toward building Bivingsville began in the early 1830’s, under 
the leadership of Dr. James Bivings, who came from Lincolnton, North 
Carolina, about 1832. He brought with him a full set of competent 
workmen, stonemasons, carpenters, machinists, and the factory build¬ 
ing he put up was, for its time, a very imposing affair. He bought his 
machinery in Paterson, New Jersey, one feature which elicited ad¬ 
miration being an overshot wheel of 26-foot diameter and 12-foot 
breast. This mill had 1,200 spindles and 24 looms. 

County records show that Dr. Bivings acquired titles to extensive 
tracts of land adjacent to and including the site of Wofford’s Iron 
Works. He organized a company, The Bivingsville Cotton Manu- 


Looms and Spindles 


79 


facturing Company, “for the purpose of manufacturing cotton and 
wool.” The incorporators were James Bivings, Simpson Bobo, and 
Elias C. Leitner; and the capital was $100,000, with the privilege of 
increasing to $500,000. The charter “provided that the said indi¬ 
viduals should not have corporate capacity until $100,000 shall have 
been actually paid in, also that the stockholders shall be liable in¬ 
dividually, in case of insolvency of said company, to an amount equal 
to the amount of share in said company, which they may have respec¬ 
tively held within one year of the failure of said company, over and 
above their original subscriptions.” It had not been long in operation 
before litigation arose which resulted ultimately in the withdrawal of 
Dr. Bivings from the mill to which he had with pride given his name. 
Incidentally, the name of the village was retained until 1878, when it 
was changed to Glendale, a name retained to the present day. 

A vivid picture of the activities of Dr. Bivings in developing Biv- 
ingsville may be found in a racy communication in the Spartan, March 
10, 1880, signed J. W. V.: 

Here a mere shadow (physically speaking), with gold frame 
spectacles over his face all the time, had the thorn bushes and 
scrubby cedars removed, the gullies filled up, and the mills and 
houses, and shops and a church and a cotton factory put upon 
the unpretending waters of “Lawson’s Fork.” Inducements were 
offered to sell to a company, and E. C. Leitner (one of the most 
plausible men I ever saw) was elected superintendent. He as¬ 
sured the stockholders that if all hands would pay in what was 
due the company, he would show them in one year’s time “how 
to turn over the stumps and kill spiders.” The company paid in 
the money, but they never got a peep at him again. The proba¬ 
bility is that he emigrated to a country where pepper grows 
spontaneously. Jno. C. Bomar, or “Big John,” as many called 
him, became superintendent, and perhaps owner of most of the 
stock. He was a good man as ever lived, but never was cut out 
to manage a cotton mill. Converse and Twitched let on a small 
stream of Yankee genius and Yankee energy, and the machinery 
moved with unwonted ease. 

It would make a book to tell how these men endured and toiled 
and hung on during long years, with only partial success. Any¬ 
body else would have quit. 

Bivingsville Mill was, in 1847, listed as one of the important cot¬ 
ton mills of the State—with the notation, “The Bivingsville Cotton 
Factory, near Spartanburg Courthouse, now the property of G. and 
E. C. Leitner . . . doing well.” However, in 1856, it was sold, in 


80 


A History of Spartanburg County 


bankruptcy proceedings, and was bought by John Bomar and Com¬ 
pany for $19,500. The company included at first, S. N. Evins, Simp¬ 
son Bobo, Vardry McBee, John Bomar, John C. Zimmerman, and 
D. E. Converse. McBee’s connection soon ceased. 

Dr. James Bivings, in 1846, undertook a mill on Chinquapin Creek, 
about two miles north of the courthouse on the old Rutherfordton 
Road, and failed because of the inadequacy of the water power. Un¬ 
daunted by this disappointment, he and his son bought and completed 
a mill eight miles west of the courthouse. To this mill, begun by a 
man named Williams, the Bivingses gave the name Crawfordsville, 
in honor of John Crawford. It was noted by The Telegraph, in 1847, 
as among the ten important mills of the State, with the comment “a 
new establishment, now being erected by Dr. Bivings' on a large scale, 
not yet in full operation . . . but, from the intelligence and energy of 
the proprietor, we have no doubt of his success.” 

In 1857 this mill had 1,000 spindles and 20 looms. It had been sold 
by Dr. Bivings and his son the preceding year to the firm of Grady, 
Hawthorn, and Turbyfill. Soon afterwards Dr. Bivings removed to 
Georgia and died there less than three years later. His death elicited 
in the Spartan this tribute: “He did more than any other individual 
to build up and promote the manufacturing interests of our District. 
He possessed a remarkable foresight and a discriminating judgment.” 

Dr. James Bivings was indeed a superior man. He was an ardent 
supporter of Adams against Jackson in 1828, and of Harrison against 
Van Buren in 1840, and was a forceful campaign speaker. He was 
also an advocate of temperance, and a man of positive religious con¬ 
victions. On one occasion he closed the Bivingsville Factory and 
urged all of his operatives and their families to attend a revival meet¬ 
ing in progress. 

Joseph Finger and I n 1839 another citizen of Lincolnton, North 
Gabriel Cannon Carolina, moved to Spartanburg to take advan¬ 
tage of its water power facilities. This was Joseph Finger, who 
bought lands and erected a “large merchant mill” on North Pacolet 
River one mile above the site of McMillan’s Mills, where were also 
located saw and merchant mills, equipment for wool-carding, a store, 
and a blacksmith shop. According to some accounts, Finger pro¬ 
jected a cotton factory at his arrival, but abandoned the enterprise 
until 1848, when he formed a partnership with Gabriel Cannon, and 



Glendale 

Site of Wofford’s Iron Works, 1773; Bivingsville, 1835; 
Glendale, .1878. Probably the oldest seats of continuous 
manufacturing in the Up Country. 



Lyman : Seat of a Pacific Mills Plant, 1924 



Bridge Over Pacolet River at Converse 

(Hurricane Shoals) 








One: of the Handsome Antebellum Homes on Magnolia Street 
Home of Dr. Lafayette Twitty, on the site now occupied by the 
United States Post Office and Courthouse 



The Church of the Advent, Begun in the Fifties 








Looms and Spindles 


81 


they built a mill which was successfully operated until its destruction 
by fire in 1885. 

Cannon was at the time engaged in various enterprises, one of 
which was a large store at New Prospect, within three miles of Fin¬ 
ger’s merchant mill. When built, the mill was very modest, with a 
capital of only $5,000, according to Landrum, and it operated 400 spin¬ 
dles. According to the statistics collected by August Kohn, it had, in 
1867, 500 spindles and 15 looms. Upon the organization of the Manu¬ 
facturers’ Association of the Confederate States, at Augusta, Georgia, 
November 19, 1862, Gabriel Cannon, of Fingerville, was named presi¬ 
dent and H. F. Lester, of Buena Vista, secretary. 

The Coming of When the Bivingsville plant fell under the direction 
D. E. Converse 0 f Bomar, he was wise enough, according to 

Landrum, to set out in search of an experienced manager. He 
found a genius in Dexter Edgar Converse, a man who came of an 
able family of cloth manufacturers, and who was himself expertly 
trained in the various phases of mill management. Bomar employed 
Converse as manager of the Bivingsville mill, and in so doing set on 
foot a train of circumstances of the greatest significance in the history 
of the section. Converse was a partner and soon became the leader 
of them all. Not only did he organize a paying enterprise at Bivings¬ 
ville, but he manifested a civic spirit which made him invaluable in 
the building of Spartanburg. The part he played in time of war and 
later of reconstruction was outstanding in the development of city 
and county. He brought into being in Spartanburg a new stability 
and perseverance in the textile industry. The example he set in¬ 
spired others to surmount obstacles. 



CHAPTER EIGHT 


Doctrines and Dogmas 

Winds of While they were fighting wild beasts and Indians, clear- 
Doctrine j n g forests, opening roads, setting up orderly forms of 
government, building iron works and mills, Spartan pioneers were 
also erecting log churches and establishing schools, and were blown 
upon by all sorts of winds of doctrine. They were divided in their 
views concerning slavery, temperance, nullification, theology, public 
education, and other social and economic problems. 

Slavery Slavery was sanctioned by the law of the land, but in the 
early days the Spartanburg area had preachers and others who ven¬ 
tured to oppose the institution. Such an occurrence took place July 
20, 1796, when James Gilliland, Jr., son of the Nazareth pastor, 
presented himself before the Presbytery of South Carolina for or¬ 
dination. A “remonstrance” bearing twelve signatures was presented, 
accusing the candidate of “preaching against Government.” This 
charge he denied, but he said he felt “called of God to preach against 
slavery.” After heated discussion he was persuaded to “be guided by 
the counsel of Presbytery as the voice of God,” and promised that he 
would not “as a preacher attack slavery from the pulpit.” In 1804 
Gilliland’s convictions in opposition to slavery forced him to resign 
his pastorate and join the migration to Ohio. Instances could be 
multiplied to show how slavery was a contributory factor in draining 
the population of some of its most desirable elements. New England 
industrialists, Quakers, and Scotch Presbyterians were among those 
who joined in the Western migration because of it. 

Freemasonry Sentiment among stern religionists was divided on 
other subjects—for instance, freemasonry. While the churches seem, 
with some exceptions, to have endorsed the temperance movement, 
indications are frequent that in the old days they viewed with sus¬ 
picion and disfavor the secret fraternal orders. This is illustrated 
by the case of the Reverend John Williams of the Cedar Spring 
Church. This church, upon learning that he had joined the free¬ 
masons in the Tyger River Church bounds, suspended him and 
brought him to trial. He defended himself and appealed for a new 
hearing before Tyger River and Bethlehem churches. These congre¬ 
gations voted in favor of sustaining the action of Cedar Spring 
82 


Doctrines and Dogmas 


83 


Church. The case was argued again, with four churches participating 
—Upper Duncans Creek, Boiling Spring, Bethlehem, and Cedar 
Spring. The churches denied the contention of Williams that he was 
within his rights in being a freemason, and the outcome was that in 
September 1801, he was excluded from the Baptist ministry for join¬ 
ing the masons. Fifty years later ministers and church officers were 
leaders in freemasonry. 

Church The experiences of John Williams and James Gilliland 
Discipline illustrate the social control exercised by the churches. 
Instances could be cited from the church books of former days of 
astonishing rebukes and disciplinary measures administered for such 
faults as quarrelsomeness, profanity, slander, drunkenness, operating 
stills, marital infidelity, habitual absence from public worship. In 
the forties James Edward Henry, a member of the Methodist Church, 
declined a challenge to fight a duel because he felt honor bound by 
his church vows to such a course of action. 

Temperance The observations of Bishop Asbury and Columbus Hale 
would not indicate that the nation-wide agitation for temperance 
could have met any marked success in Spartanburg District. Yet the 
case was quite to the contrary. In 1822 and 1826 two men made 
church-to-church visitations, speaking in behalf of temperance—the 
Reverend Michael Dickson of the Nazareth congregation, and the 
Reverend Christopher Johnson of the Philadelphia Baptist Church. 
In 1831 the Reverend John L. Kennedy spoke from every pulpit 
opened to him in the District on behalf of temperance societies. Judge 
J. B. O’Neall’s influence had great power in winning men to join 
temperance societies. There were two types of these societies— 
those requiring a pledge of total abstinence and those requiring what 
was called the Washingtonian pledge, which permitted the drinking of 
wines and beer, but not of distilled liquors. 

When Spartanburg, August 2, 1843, entertained the State Tem¬ 
perance Convention, the District was represented by 84 delegates, 
the organizations and number of delegates sent by each being as 
follows: Spartanburg District Temperance Association, 3; Spar¬ 
tanburg Village Washington Society, 7; Lawson’s Fork Washington 
Society, 1 ; Shiloh Washington Society, 2; New Prospect Washington 
Society, 3; Mount Zion Total Abstinence Society, 6; Boiling Springs 
Total Abstinence Society, 3; Trinity Washington Society, 1; Chapel 
Washington Society, 1; Foster’s Meeting House Total Abstinence 


84 


A History of Spartanburg County 


Society, 2; New Hope Washington Society, 2; Young Men’s Tem¬ 
perance Society of Spartanburg District, 7; Washington Bethlehem 
Society, 3; Republican Washington Society, 8; Bivingsville Total 
Abstinence Society, 6; Washington Society of Maberryville, 3; Naza¬ 
reth Temperance Society, 7; Tuck’s School House Temperance So¬ 
ciety, 3; Ridgefield Washington Society, 5 ; Holly Springs Tem¬ 
perance Society, 3; South Pacolet Total Abstinence, 4; Mount Pleas¬ 
ant Temperance Society, 1. There were at the Convention about 300 
delegates. The State membership at the time was 19,211; Spartan¬ 
burg’s societies had 1,811 members—second in the State to Charles¬ 
ton, which had 4,042 members. 

Typical of the temperance celebrations held annually by the various 
organizations was one at Rich Hill, May 15, 1858. The exercises be¬ 
gan at 10 a.m. with a procession formed at the church. Leading the 
procession was an organization called the Neighbors’ Band. Then 
followed, in order, the citizens, the ladies, Calhoun Lodge 84 A. F. M., 
and the Fairforest No. 1 Free and Independent Brothers of Tem¬ 
perance. The line of march was under command of Colonel Joe 
Ballenger, Captain T. W. Wyatt, and General B. B'. Foster. The 
exercises began with prayer by the Reverend C. S. Baird, and in¬ 
cluded an anniversary address by the chaplain and the main address 
on Temperance by Professor J. H. Carlisle. An “Ode” concluded 
the program, and a “handsome repast” followed. The attendance was 
reported as between a thousand and fifteen hundred. 

Religious When settlements were new and preachers were 

Denominations scarce> doctrinal divisions were of little consequence. 
The separation of church and State caused heated controversy in the 
low country, but was a question never agitated in Spartanburg, where 
the idea of an established church was generally repugnant. The Pres¬ 
byterians and Baptists had churches in operation when the Revolution 
broke, but the Methodists first appeared after 1785. Robert Mills’ 
Statistics, in 1825, reported the District as having a population of 
16,000 with fewer than 2,000 church members. The Baptists were 
listed as having six churches with 1,425 communicant members. Evi¬ 
dently Mills did not list the many “arms” which the Baptists had 
established before this time. The records of the Baptist denomination 
include the following churches in Spartanburg County as founded be¬ 
fore 1825: Friendship (1765), Buck Creek (1779), Cedar Spring 
(1787), Boiling Springs (1792), Bethlehem (1800), Philadelphia 


Doctrines and Dogmas 


85 


(1803), Wolf’s Creek (1803), Mt. Zion (1804), Holly Springs 
(1804), Green Pond (1810), Abner’s Creek (1818), Bethesda 
(1820), New Prospect (1820). According to the Statistics there 
were two Presbyterian churches, with 128 communicants. These 
were Nazareth (1765) and North Pacolet (1780). There were 
Methodists in Spartanburg in 1785; but as late as 1825 they had no 
organized churches; although Mills stated that 361 were enrolled in 
societies. What Mills described as “another sect not organized” was 
no doubt the Episcopalians, of whom a strong group existed at this 
period near Glenn Springs. 

Camp The camp meeting was an institution which all denomina- 
Meetmgs tj ons f oun d of use, but in the hands of the Methodists it 
was especially successful. Popular camp meeting grounds in this 
area were those at Shiloh, Bird Mountain, Lebanon Church, Pacolet, 
Fingerville, and, most famous of all, Cannon’s Camp Ground. 
Lorenzo Dow, known in England as the “Father of the Camp-Meet¬ 
ing,” once lived for a year or so in Spartanburg District. He founded 
Sharon Church; and John Chapman, Sr., named a son after him. 

The first great camp meeting in Spartanburg District was held, 
July 2-5, 1802, at Poplar Springs in the Nazareth community. It was 
an outgrowth of the meeting of the Second Presbytery of South Caro¬ 
lina, and 13 Presbyterian preachers were present, besides several visit¬ 
ing ministers of other denominations. The attendance was estimated 
at from 3,000 to 7,000. More than 200 carriages and wagons were 
counted; and the saddle horses were numerous. The number of tents 
was remarkably large. Camp meetings continued to be popular until 
comparatively recent years, and, in days of poor transportation and 
few preachers, they greatly promoted religious activity. 

Cannon’s Camp Ground, established about 1834 in connection 
with McKendree’s Chapel, continued for more than seventy-five years 
to be the scene of annual gatherings. It was typical of the best of 
them. There was a large “Arbor”—a development of the brush arbor 
of primitive days—of rough lumber, open on all sides. It had a pulpit, 
around which was built the “mourners’ bench”— where penitents 
bowed to ask for prayer or give testimony. A space on one side of the 
pulpit was reserved for the slaves, who always attended in large 
numbers. The worshipers sat on “peg-leg” benches without backs. 
The ground was covered with straw—saved from the threshings for 
this use. “Light-horses”—wooden scaffolds about four feet high, 


86 


A History of Spartanburg County 


covered with rocks and soil, were placed on all four sides and heaped 
with rich “light-wood”—resinous pine wood. Their characteristic 
odor and flaring light were among the unforgettable associations in the 
memories of all who ever attended the old-fashioned camp meeting. 
Candles, and in later days kerosene lanterns, supplemented the out¬ 
side lights. Over the pulpit hung a horn, the blasts from which gave 
signals for each day’s activities. The singing, so hearty that it could 
be heard more than a mile away, was another memorable feature. 
There was preaching three times each day. The day began at seven 
o’clock with a sunrise service announced by the blaring horn. 

Most families owned tents, as the wooden shacks grouped about 
the arbor were called; and these were made as comfortable as the 
standards of a family demanded. Sometimes two or more wagons 
were required to convey the necessary equipment to and from camp. 
Some householders took feather beds to soften the straw in the built- 
in bunks. Food was prepared in advance, at home, so far as possible— 
baked hams, turkeys, chickens, cakes, pies, and loaf bread. Jars and 
jars of pickles and preserves were carefully packed. Sharing meals 
and exchanging recipes for admired dishes was a pleasure indeed to 
housewives who, in the strenuous older days, too seldom had the 
chance to enjoy each other’s hospitality. Patterns, new stitches in 
crocheting and knitting—these also were by-products the ladies carried 
from the camp meeting. 

The Brushy In August 1831, the Saluda Baptist Association held 
Creek Revival a rev j va i a t the Brushy Creek Church eight miles 
north of Greenville. This meeting rivalled the camp meetings in the 
interest it aroused. Men and women rode amazingly long distances to 
attend the services. New preaching centers were established, brush 
arbors were put up, and so great was the interest that shops were 
closed, looms and spinning wheels were stopped, and only necessary 
household duties were attended to. According to a highly intelligent 
narrator: 

It is difficult now to state the precise results of this revival. 
Within an area of twenty-five miles square, thirteen new churches 
were formed, while the old ones were filled to overflowing. It is 
safe to estimate that during the whole period there were added to 
these churches between two and three thousand souls. Nor was the 
great work confined to the ignorant and excitable; the best material 
in the country was gathered into the folds of the church; and a new 
era dawned in the history of the Baptists of Upper Carolina. 


Doctrines and Dogmas 


87 


Denominational The years following the Brushy Creek revival were 
Growth years of growth in all denominations. The list of 

churches was greatly expanded, especially in the Methodist and Bap¬ 
tist denominations. The Presbyterians added only one new organiza¬ 
tion—the Spartanburg church. The Episcopalians organized the 
Church of the Advent in Spartanburg (1848), Calvary in Glenn 
Springs (1850), and a chapel in Wellford. The Methodists had 
many preaching places, and organized churches when the number of 
converts justified. They were, according to the Reverend A. M. 
Chreitzberg, included in the Broad River Circuit, 1785-1802; in the 
Saluda Circuit, 1802-1805; and in the Enoree Circuit, 1805-1833. 
Five counties — Spartanburg, Union, Chester, York, and Fair- 
field — made up this circuit. During that period circuit preach¬ 
ers visited the stations as they could, and camp meetings and 
district conferences were held. Benjamin Wofford’s activities began 
in 1805, when he was received as a preacher. In 1816 he was ap¬ 
pointed a “traveling preacher.” In 1817 the fourth quarterly con¬ 
ference of the Enoree Circuit was held at Wofford’s Chapel, and Ben¬ 
jamin Wofford, as secretary, kept the records. The only year in 
which the records included a tabulation of the churches was 1836. 
Twenty-two churches were listed—the following in the Spartanburg 
area: Tabernacle, Chapel, Shiloh, Foster’s Meeting House, and Mc- 
Kendree’s Chapel. The great revival of 1831, the building of a church 
in Spartanburg, and especially the building of Wofford College, were 
influential in the strengthening and multiplying of chapels and 
churches of the Methodist denomination. 

The Baptists especially owed much to the revival of 1831. Some 
“arms,” almost ready to wither, took on renewed life. Several re¬ 
markable Baptist preachers—Thomas Ray, Richard Shackleford, 
Thomas Woodruff, John G. Landrum, outstanding among them— 
were influential factors in this growth. “Uncle Tommy” Ray and 
“Dick” Shackleford were especially identified with Bethel, which was 
for many years the leading Baptist church of the district. 

On November 1, 1833, twelve churches sent representatives to 
Mount Zion Church to organize the Tyger River Association. J. G. 
Landrum was made moderator. Of these churches, one—Mountain 
Page—was in North Carolina; one—Cedar Grove—was in Laurens 
District; six—Clear Spring, Brushy Creek, Head of Tyger, Washing¬ 
ton, Bethuel, and Pleasant Grove—were in Greenville; and four— 


88 


A History of Spartanburg County 


Bethlehem, Mount Zion, Green Pond, and Holly Springs—were in 
Spartanburg. In 1876, when this association was broken up and the 
Spartanburg Association formed, Landrum was again moderator. 
His ability and tireless energy are illustrated by the fact that during 
the year 1848 he actually served eight churches regularly, preaching 
each month sixteen sermons and riding at least 250 miles horseback 
to keep his appointments. Some of these churches had to hold services 
on weekdays to secure Landrum’s ministry. During his long life 
Landrum served as pastor of New Prospect 50 years; of Bethlehem 
36 years; and of Wolf Creek as long, and preached regularly for con¬ 
siderable periods at other churches. It was estimated that he baptized 
between 5,000 and 6,000 men and women. 

Bethel The most remarkable of the Baptist churches was Bethel. 
Church g 0 anc j en t ti ia t its beginnings are clouded in obscurity, it 
emerged into prominence by 1803. In that year a third meeting¬ 
house was built: 

... a long low-framed building, never ceiled, and with a 
gallery across each end. The pulpit was situated in the centre 
of one side. It was a high, square-shaped box with steps running 
up at one end, and closed with a door. The book board was so 
high that a minister of small stature might find some difficulty in 
making himself seen over it. One can imagine how, upon a warm 
summer day, about three or four preachers could enjoy themselves, 
sitting upon a bench nailed to the wall, with the door buttoned 
tight, which was rarely neglected, cooped up in this box, and with 
no ventilation except a small window in their rear, about as high as 
their heads .... the house for its time a goodly one, was beauti¬ 
fully situated in a grove of large spreading oaks, and near to the 
corner of the same old graveyard. 

This house stood until 1849. In Bethel Church, in 1789, was 
organized the Bethel Association, which held thirty-three meetings 
in it. In 1839 Bethel entertained the State Baptist Convention, and 
after entering the Tyger River Association entertained that body. 

A touching story of this church tells how the revival of 1802 ex¬ 
tended to it. Thomas Woodruff was then the neighborhood school¬ 
master, and one day he became uneasy at the long absence from the 
schoolroom of little Rhoda Bragg. He went in search of her, and 
found her on her knees praying aloud for him. He was deeply 
affected, and remained listening until other pupils came to the scene. 
The master sent for a preacher, and so began a meeting which led to 


Doctrines and Dogmas 


89 


one hundred eighty-eight baptisms and a great renewal of religious 
zeal in Bethel Church. 

Another affecting story of this church has to do with the political 
bitterness of Nullification days. The Reverend Thomas Ray of Union 
County had for many years ministered to the Bethel flock acceptably. 
But when he aligned himself with the Nullifiers and even accepted 
election to the Nullification Convention, some of his Unionist members 
so resented his course that he was dismissed from the pastorate. 
Things went from bad to worse until the church was divided into 
two factions who refused to have dealings with each other. The as¬ 
sociation sent a committee to investigate the situation and ordered a 
day of fasting and prayer. On the appointed day, November 28, 1834, 
a large and serious throng gathered. Some of the leaders of the 
denomination spoke and prayed and urged steps toward reconciliation. 
The people, deeply moved, formed two lines in the churchyard and 
marched past each other, singing the songs of Zion and shaking 
hands, every Nullifier with every Unionist. Ray was soon invited to 
return—and he did so with great joy. 

Political James H. Carlisle, in an address to Spartanburg college 
Differences girls, described how bitterly men felt on the question of 
Nullification: 

There are not many now living who remember to have seen 
a cockade on a Nullifier’s hat. Think of a rosette made up of blue 
ribbons, the rosette as large nearly as a silver dollar; now on the 
middle of that, fasten a gilt palmetto button. That was the Nulli¬ 
fier’s cockade, that was his flag, that was his creed. The men of 
that day wore beaver hats. That cockade put on the left side of the 
hat was the Nullifier’s flag flying. The absence of that usually 
meant a Union man. 

The very cockade was almost an invitation to a fight, it was 
like a chip which a young fellow puts on his shoulder and goes 
about with, challenging the opposition, the State of South Caro¬ 
lina, and the universe to knock it off. The cockade was about like 
that, and not many salesdays or court weeks passed without a 
fight. It drove the dividing line through the State. A father 
would be on one side, a Union man, and his son a Nullifier. Of 
two boys, one would put on a cockade, the other would not. The 
subject came up at the dinner table, and everywhere. Some of the 
best citizens left the State in disgust and despair, trying to find 
in other States the harmony and peace which South Carolina did 
not give them. 

This county was largely Union, but there were some Nullifiers 


90 


A History of Spartanburg County 


in old Spartanburg. Years ago, in looking over old papers, I 
found a handbill, signed by a committee of Nullifiers in Spartan¬ 
burg, warning their friends not to go into the courthouse on the 
Fourth of July, that the Union men were to meet there. The two 
parties could not meet together in an old-fashioned Fourth of July 
celebration, to rejoice over English tryanny being abolished. No, 
they were Nullifiers and Unionists. 

About that time some early risers in the little village of Spar¬ 
tanburg were surprised to find an effigy of Calhoun hanging from 
the limb of a tree very near where the Morgan monument now 
stands. John C. Calhoun was then understood to mean John 
Cataline Calhoun, when the opposing party desired to translate his 
middle initial . . . 

Very dramatic scenes were enacted in Spartanburg in connection 
with the Nullification dispute. William Hoy was of the opinion that 
a five-hour speech delivered by Judge Smith, in the fall of 1831, 
crystallized sentiment against the Nullification doctrine. Hoy gave a 
striking account of the great Fourth of July celebration of 1832, 
when the Unionists organized a spectacular political demonstration. 
From all over the district the people thronged to hear the speeches 
and share the excitement. At dawn a cannon salute ushered in the 
day, and at 11 o’clock a line of parade was formed, led by Revo¬ 
lutionary soldiers and distinguished citizens. The customary orations, 
songs, and toasts were included in the celebration, and a special point 
was made of reading Washington’s Farewell Address instead of the 
Declaration of Independence. 

In the fall elections Spartanburg’s vote was overwhelmingly 
Unionist as against States’ Rights. A custom of that day made pos¬ 
sible the election of non-resident representatives to the proposed State 
Convention, and Spartanburg elected Judge J. B. O’Neall of New¬ 
berry, J. S. Richardson of Clarendon, and Alfred Huger of Charles¬ 
ton, to represent the county, with three native sons—John S. Row¬ 
land, James Crook, and S. N. Evins. 

Despite the fact that the Unionist sentiment prevailed in 1832, 
public opinion steadly veered around to the side of States’ Rights. 
What tariff injustices would not do, abolitionist agitation did. Even¬ 
tually, in 1849, the Southern delegates in Congress issued an address 
to their constituents analyzing the situation and recommending that 
meetings be held in every Congressional District of the South to con¬ 
sider existing conditions and insure the Southern people opportunity 
to express their sentiments as to their constitutional rights. 


Doctrines and Dogmas 


91 


Spartans were among the first to respond to this call, holding a 
meeting at the courthouse, March 6, 1849. Dr. John Winsmith pre¬ 
sided over this meeting, and James E. Henry had a large part in its 
deliberations. This native of New England, who represented Spartan¬ 
burg District in the legislature for twelve years, was the mover in the 
adoption of resolutions expressing resentment at the grievances, in¬ 
justice, and degradation to which the South was being subjected, and 
pledging the citizens of Spartanburg District to unite with others in 
arresting further progress of such conditions. The chair was author¬ 
ized to appoint a vigilance committee, and named on it: Colonel H. H. 
Thomson, Major H. J. Dean, Simpson Bobo, Esq., Dr. W. C. Bennett, 
Hon. Gabriel Cannon, Captain Robert Jackson, General J. W. Miller, 
Colonel S. N. Evins, Jonas Brewton, Esq., Dr. C. P. Wofford, James 
Nesbitt, Z. D. Bragg, Esq., J. Davis, C. P. Smith, J. C. Zimmerman, 
Thomas Littlejohn, Dr. Samuel Otterson, Captain A. Bonner, and 
Henry Dodd, Esq. 

As the years passed, interest in railroads, agricultural societies, 
schools, and general business and social life was crowded into the 
background by a growing concern about the turmoil in the nation. 
Political sentiment on the question of secession divided Spartans, 
along with all Southerners, into three distinct factions: Unionists, 
Secessionists, and Cooperationists. Each faction had able and patri¬ 
otic adherents, not only in the District but in the entire South. The 
unwise policies of the national leaders and of the Abolitionists, and 
the course of the national agitation concerning slavery and protection 
of it as an institution, gradually, by 1860, brought about in Spartan¬ 
burg a united support of secession. John Brown’s Raid increased 
popular indignation against the North. Local papers were filled with 
accounts of it and comments on its significance and its expected 
effects. Musters, drills, tournaments, flag presentations, and liberty- 
pole raisings multiplied. Men and women even at the time felt dimly 
that they were living through the end of an era. The years behind 
them had followed a pattern of life which another year was to break 
up and destroy forever. These years were to take on in memory a 
glamour and a glory which they had never possessed in reality—“the 
good old days befo’ the War.” 


CHAPTER NINE 


Schools and Learning 

Log Churches The log churches that the first settlers established 
and Schools were used also as schools, and in many cases the 

preacher was the schoolmaster. Some old church books contain 
indications that it was usual when building a new church to retain 
the old one for the school. In 1828 the Methodists in a district con¬ 
ference meeting of the Enoree Circuit put themselves on record as 
disapproving the use of the meeting-house for “schools, reading, or 
singing.” Many of the schools were built for the purpose to which 
they were put, and in the early days they seem, like the churches, to 
have been made of logs. Before 1840 the framed school buildings 
were exceptional, and brick school buildings were exceptional at 
any time before the Civil War. 

One of the old-time combination church-schoolhouses was de¬ 
scribed by Judge Robert Gage, of Union, writing some time in the 
seventies: 

It was a hewn log structure, with one of those ancient, high 
boxed-up pulpits, with the clerk’s box in front. . . How many 
associations come trouping into our minds at the mention of 
this old log church, with its old-fashioned pulpit and grove of 
grand old oaks. It was our second school house, and the hours 
spent there come back with a vividness common to nothing but 
school days. The struggle to be first in the morning, to store 
away our basket or bucket in the pulpit and hide to surprise the 
next comer, the excitement of “spells,” the shout at play time, 
and the rush for the spring to enjoy the bottles of cool milk, the 
invigoratory games of “Prisoner’s Base,” “Cat and Chimney,” 
all come back. 

Charles Petty, reared near Limestone Springs, discussing typical 
schools of the period 1830-1845, wrote: 

The first school the writer ever attended was a little log 
concern, slab benches, a loose floor, a good ventilation, hickory 
hooks to hang the dinner baskets on, and a chimney nearly as 
wide as the house. The teacher began as soon as he could 
get to the school, and he did his best through the long hours of 
the day. But the boys and girls of that time did not learn as 
rapidly then as they do now. . . At least three-fourths of the 
time of the little fellows was spent in nodding or gazing around, 
or “scrouging” around the big fireplace. 


92 


Schools and Learning 


93 


William Hoy delighted in recounting the successful careers of 
men of the Tygers area who, in the early 1800’s, attended school in 
log houses with dirt floors and wooden chimneys but taught by 
educated masters. 

Records of an Old- During the years between 1778 and 1815 Sam- 
Time Schoolmaster ue i jSToblit taught school in the Fairforest set¬ 
tlement, and his notebooks show the excellences and defects of his type 
of schoolmaster. His penmanship was undoubtedly his especial pride, 
and some pages are as beautiful as an engraver’s copperplate. One 
book contains the entire Shorter Catechism of the Presbyterian 
Church, the Child’s Catechism, and Bible texts, in flowing, flawless 
penmanship. This book is endorsed Samuel Noblit His Book, May 
1782. 

Although Noblit seems to have kept his attendance records with 
the greatest care and to have noted when his pupils “begun to write,” 
he entered few notes to indicate the nature of the work done in his 
schools; nor did he indicate the exact location of the schools he 
taught. In one entry he noted losing three days while the school- 
house was being repaired. In another place he “opened school in 
the shop.” One entry runs that “Polly Smith begun to R Lat March 
ye 16th, 1780.” 

School seems to have begun in August and run until the week 
before Christmas. Year after year, about December 22, Noblit makes 
such notes as this: “The Schollars Bard me out untill ye Monday 
after New Year’s Day.” School began often about February and 
ran into July. Now and then Noblit noted, “I attended, no Schol¬ 
lars came.” He noted days lost from school for buryings, musters, 
vendues, threshing wheat, harvesting, “sewing flax,” “raising flax,” 
“getting fodder,” “diging” potatoes, attending corn huskings, raising 
barns or lofts, making fences, “hailing corn,” and so on. Once, in 
1778, he noted, “We had a Cotton Picken.” Another time he was 
out of school two days because his wife was sick. 

The value of paper in the old days and the thrift manifested 
in its use appears in the fact that almost every inch of space left 
blank in the school records as originally kept was later utilized for 
preserving valuable notes, such as birth, marriage, and death dates 
in the community. Apparently Noblit did not serve in the Revolu¬ 
tion himself, but he noted the departures for camp, or Charlestown, 
or Hammond’s Old Store, of neighbors. One page indicates a pos- 


94 


A History of Spartanburg County 


sibility that he did serve and keep the order book. He entered 
a note on the battle of Musgrove’s Mill “on the Eniree River,” 
and of the fall of Charlestown. On April 23, 1780, he noted that 
“T F started for North Carolina with his daughter Peggy Teral. 
Came home Monday 11th, 1780, and taken away by Tories Sept, 
ye 15th, 1780.” 

Not the least interesting pages in Noblit’s books are those con¬ 
taining Revolutionary ballads and love songs, some original and 
some secured from friends. He kept some copies of letters he 
wrote. Several times he entered dates when friends set out for 
“Georgia State.” He recorded worshipping, at different times, at 
“the meeting house,” “The Babtist meeting house,” and “the Tent 
over the creek.” From time to time he noted fast days and sacra¬ 
ment Sundays. Once he referred to “our minister, Mr. William¬ 
son,” and at various times he noted hearing sermons from the Rev¬ 
erend Mr. Walker, the Reverend Mr. Alexander, Mr. Newton, and 
Mr. Edmonds. On October 16, 1785, he noted that “the young 
Reverend Mr. Hall preached at ye Tent and babtzd my son Wm.” 

Noblit’s notebooks show that he was a practical farmer and 
when he could not get a school he farmed for himself or for his 
neighbors on shares. He carefully balanced his accounts with his 
patrons, crediting them with such articles as “cloath,” “cloath boots,” 
shirts, “lincey,” farm products, and labor. His charges seem to have 
varied with the number and advancement of the pupils. The years 
1783 and 1784 he seems to have spent in Georgia. 

Noblit’s rolls included the names of Park, Thompson, Means, 
Say, Faris, Simmerall, Davidson, Smith, Curry, Gooden, Anderson, 
Dinney, Bird, Blasinghame, McWhorter, Storey, Edwards, Noblit, 
Rutledge, McBride, Pruett, Williamson, Finley, Cunningham, Drake, 
Mcllroy, Wellsh, and White. 

The Spartanburg The Spartanburg Philanthropic Society was 
Philanthropic Society founded in the Nazareth congregation in 1794, 
and was incorporated in 1797. Its membership was soon extended 
to include leading men from this district and Union. Its object was 
to “contribute to the public and general interest of our county” by 
promoting “a much more general diffusion of knowledge and sound 
literature.” The Reverend James Templeton was, it appears, the 
leader, and the other members who actually organized this society 
were: James Jordan, Samuel Nesbitt, Thomas Moore, Isham Foster, 


Schools and Learning 


95 


Gabriel Benson and Samuel Miller. The list of members soon passed 
fifty and included David Johnson, who was to be the first Up Country 
governor of South Carolina, and Abram Nott, a future chancellor. 
The full list of members, as it has been preserved, includes, besides 
those mentioned, most of the outstanding men of the old Upper 
District: Isham Harrison, John Nesbitt, John Collins, D. Golightly, 
Osborne West. William Farrow, John Sloan, William Williamson, 
Samuel Morrow, Thomas James, W. Golightly, Moses Casey, Jr., 
R. S. Saunders, Peter Gray, Gab. Benson, Samuel Farrow, William 
Wells, A. B. Moore, Burrell Bobo, Benjamin Peak, John Harrison, 
William Lancaster, Archibald Taylor, Willis Willeford, Daniel White, 
John Barnett, William Ross Smith, Christopher Johnson, Thomas 
Patton, Hugh Means, John Thomas, Jr., John O’Neill, James Smith, 
Aaron Smith, Thomas Hanna, William Kingsborough, William Will- 
banks, William Palmer, A. Casey, Thomas Williamson, Berryman 
Shumate, and William Smith. 

The Spartanburg Philanthropic Society, according to the act 
of incorporation bearing date of December 16, 1797, specified that 
it was formed for the “purpose of erecting an academy.” Appar¬ 
ently the first school founded by the Society was called the Eustatie 
School—of which few particulars have been handed down. The 
Minerva School seems to have followed it, and to have been taught 
for many years in a building erected for it, as is indicated by the 
recollections of those who attended it. None of them, however, 
have preserved any facts as to how it was conducted or where it 
was located. 

A manual labor school at Poolesville under the auspices of the 
Spartanburg Philanthropic Society asked to be received under the care 
of the Second Presbytery of South Carolina. Of it no specific facts 
have come down. This school was referred to by Lockwood in 1832 
as being under the Second Presbytery, and by James H. Carlisle 
in his address at the opening of Converse College as the first manual 
labor school in South Carolina. Rock Spring Academy, mentioned 
by Ramsay, with Minerva School, as one of the two schools in the 
district in 1800, was possibly the Poolesville School. 

The record book of the Spartanburg Philanthropic Society was 
in 1892 described as being then in bad condition, and its present 
whereabouts is unknown. Presumably the organization, having ac- 


96 


A History of Spartanburg County 


complished its purpose, faded into oblivion as local organizations 
here and there gathered strength. 

The Cedar Robert Mills singled out for special commendation 

Spring Schools th e sc hool at Cedar Spring—“a promising academy 
in which Latin, Greek, mathematics, and English studies are taught.” 
He noted that “female education was much neglected” in the dis¬ 
trict, but that plans were under way to establish a school for girls. 
This was done, a schoolmaster named Scarborough conducting it. 
These two schools were incorporated by the following trustees: 
Robert Ores well, Elihu Creswell, Daniel White, James W. Cooper, 
Isaac Smith, James Brannon, Robert W. Young, John W. Farrow, 
Zachariah McDaniel, Francis H. Porter, Thomas Bomar, John Black, 
Eber Smith, Augustus Shands. 

The male academy was named the Word Academy and was pre¬ 
sided over by the Reverend James Porter. This school was an ex¬ 
cellent one. The Scarborough School, the Glenn Springs School, 
and the Spartanburg Female Academy enjoyed successively the in¬ 
struction for a long time of “Madame Sosnowski and her daughter, 
of the Polish nobility.” These ladies later founded a famous “Home 
School for Girls,” in Georgia. 

Other As communities and churches grew, the number of 

Academies academies multiplied. Many intensely interesting 
glimpses of them have been handed down. But records have been 
lost, and traditions are confusing as to exact names of teachers, 
locations of schools, or dates of activity. A few of the academies 
were for both sexes. Some of them had several teachers and large 
numbers of boarding students. Some of the classical schools for 
boys only had, clustered about the schoolhouse itself, several small 
log cabins, each serving as a sort of private sitting room and study 
for a group of older boys. In such schools as this the master would 
step to the door of the schoolroom and shout or blow a signal on 
his cowhom to attract attention. He would then call out “Caesar,” 
“Cicero,” “Demosthenes,” “Algebra.” Thereupon the students in 
whatever class was called made for the central building to recite. 

Some of these academies were very modem in viewpoint, teach¬ 
ing the principles of common law by organizing moot courts, and 
holding weekly declamation and debating contests in which all pupils 
must take their turns. Some of the masters taught what would to¬ 
day be called pre-medical courses. Woodruff had a flourishing “busi- 



Reidville Female College 

In the inset upper right is the modern school plant which replaced it. In the inset upper left is 
the girls’ dormitory of the Reidville Female College 



The State School for the Deaf and the Blind 

































Schools and Learning 


97 


ness school” in the fifties. Without exception, all the schools stressed 
mathematics and spelling. 

Public examinations were held, usually in June or July, when 
the session ended, and large crowds were present. Visiting commit¬ 
tees of examiners asked questions of the pupils in the presence of 
admiring yet anxious friends and relatives. The schoolroom was 
decorated for such an occasion, and often students and guests, led 
by the teachers, examiners, speakers, and a brass band, formed a 
procession to it from a nearby church or store. One or two days 
were devoted to these public examinations; the evenings being given 
to picnic suppers, addresses, dialogues, concerts. 

There were, in the years before the war, academies at Gowans- 
ville, New Prospect, Fort Prince, Fingerville, Vernonsville, Campo- 
bello, Cedar Spring, Cherokee Springs, Cross Anchor, Glenn Springs, 
Limestone Springs, Poplar Springs, Hurricane Shoals, Bethel, and 
elsewhere. In some schools board cost as little as $4 per month, 
including lights, wood, and washing; and $12 per month was a 
very high rate of board. Tuition ranged from $5 to $25 per term. 
Board was higher in the schools for girls, and there were many 
extras in tuition. 

The Limestone The Limestone Springs Hotel property was bought 
Springs Female j n 1345 by t h e Reverend Thomas Curtis, a Baptist 
High School minister of Charleston, and his son, the Reverend 
William Curtis of Columbia; and they established the Limestone 
Springs Female High School, an institution which attracted patron¬ 
age from many states. While the owners of the school were Baptist 
clergymen, they stressed the fact that their school was non-sectarian. 
In their first catalog, the principals wrote: “The State and its 
neighborhood must contain many who would feel gratified in be¬ 
holding the Tavern-bar and its company displaced by the piano, 
guitar, and the accompanying young voices of quite happy groups; 
the spacious Ball-room converted into a well-filled school-room; the 
Billiard-room of the lounger or the dissipated, into the Chapel of 
Divine Worship.” 

The school opened November 6 , 1845, with a faculty of seven 
members and an enrollment of sixty-seven pupils. These numbers 
increased each year, and the high standards of the school were widely 
recognized. Graduations were held in July and December. The 
only vacation was in December and January. Board cost $50 per 


98 


A History of Spartanburg County 


term, and included washing, fuel, and lights. Tuition in the pri¬ 
mary department cost $20, and in other departments $25. Tuition 
in piano, including vocal music, cost $25; guitar lessons, French, 
drawing and painting, cost $20 each. The enrollment in 1859 was 
one hundred and fifty-one, and the faculty numbered thirteen. 

The Curtises were cultured and highly educated Englishmen. 
Of Dr. Thomas Curtis, James H. Carlisle wrote: 


... It was a pleasure to meet here, in a small town of upper 
Carolina, a man who had known Coleridge, Robert Hall, John 
Foster, Adam Clarke, William Wilberforce, Richard Watson, 
and other leading men of their day. . . For several years the rural 
congregations of our county had the rare privilege of listening 
to sermons such as city churches would gladly buy at a great 
price. 


The quality of instruction offered under the guidance of such 
men as the Curtises was of the best, so that throughout its long 
history Limestone Springs High School was the pride of the dis¬ 
trict. Its carefully guarded young ladies were met by President 
Curtis at Savannah, Charleston, Columbia, and Union, and escorted 
to the Limestone Springs Female High School, where they pursued the 
English and classical studies as well as such “ornamental extras” as 
painting, embroidering, singing and piano playing. When exami¬ 
nation time came, these young ladies stood up in public and bravely 
and creditably answered hard questions; but when the time came 
for the audience to hear their graduation essays, President Curtis 
read them, sparing the modesty of the graduates. 


The School for the In 1849 the Reverend Newton Pinckney Walk- 
Deaf and the Blind er bought a boarding house at Cedar Spring 
and opened a school for deaf children. This school began with five 
pupils, but it filled a genuine need and grew steadily. In 1855 the 
plan of the school was expanded to care for the blind, and in 1857 
the State purchased it and established it as a part of the State 
educational system, employing the founder as superintendent. Suit¬ 
able buildings were erected and the school proceeded upon a career 
of usefulness and honor. Spartans take a just pride in having 
given the State two outstanding pioneers in philanthropy — the 
“Father of the Asylum” and the founder of the School for the Deaf 
and the Blind. 


Schools and Learning 


99 


Male and Female The people of the Nazareth congregation, in 
Schools at Reidville 1857, founded the Reidville Male and Female 
High Schools, “the former intended to prepare boys for college and 
life-work, the latter to graduate and confer degrees upon girls.” 
These schools were chartered, with a board of trustees numbering 
thirty members, two-thirds of whom should be Presbyterians. Later 
the number of trustees was reduced to fifteen. The land on which 
these schools were built was given by James and Anthony Wake¬ 
field and James N. Gaston. It had on it “Wakefield’s Powder 
Spring”—one of the many mineral springs of the district. 

The organization of the Reidville schools was the result of a 
New Year’s sermon, on the importance of education, preached at 
Nazareth by the Reverend R. H. Reid in 1857. Doctor Reid was 
chosen by the incorporators as president of the board of trustees 
and of the schools; in this joint capacity he served more than forty 
years, often delegating his offices to others, but retaining the direc¬ 
tion of the two schools. He had a familiarity with school manage¬ 
ment, for he had been, during his last year as a student at Columbia 
Theological Seminary, chaplain of the famed Barhamville School. 

A small village was laid out and named Reidville, and the two 
schools were placed, less than two-thirds of a mile apart, at the 
ends of its main street. On the first day of October, 1857, the cor¬ 
nerstone of the male high school was laid, with Masonic ceremonies. 
An elaborate program was followed by a picnic. This school was 
conducted as a mixed school for two years. In 1859 the other school, 
which was eventually called Reidville Female College, opened. 

Public From the year 1811, when an act to establish free schools 
Education throughout the State was passed by the Assembly, the peo¬ 
ple of Spartanburg District availed themselves of the public funds. 
The general opinion in the old days was that it was the responsibility 
of a parent to educate his children and that free tuition was only 
for the poor—that for a self-respecting family to have its children 
attend a free school was discreditable. Most important reasons for 
not sending children to free schools were that the terms were short, 
and the recompense did not command the service of good teachers. 
Public school maintenance increased in Spartanburg. It was no 
uncommon arrangement for the patrons of a community to send 
their children during the free term—which often lasted only three 


100 


A History of Spartanburg County 


months—and then employ the same teacher to continue teaching a 
private school for children who could pay tuition. 

A hot subject for controversy was whether education was a 
private or a public responsibility. Many felt that churches instead 
of the public treasury should assume the responsibility of educating 
the poor. Many objected to any public subsidizing of education. 
Among those who favored using tax money to support free schools 
were numbers who objected to a State college. James Jordan was 
defeated for reelection to the State legislature in 1800 because he 
had voted in favor of a State college. 

During the fifties bitter attacks were made on the State College 
by Joseph Wofford Tucker in letters to the Carolina Spartan signed 
“Viator.” Equally bitter rejoinders were made by James Farrow, 
using the signature “Express.” 

The presentments of the grand juries for this period indicate 
the state of public opinion. In 1850 one read: 

We present the free school system as grossly inadequate to 
the wants and necessities of the county. We recommend some 
action on the part of the legislature. We recommend an equal 
division of the free school funds among the free white population 
of the State. We are of the opinion that the several districts 
ought to be laid off in suitable beats and schools founded in the 
several beats. We report the large appropriation to the South 
Carolina College compared with the meager appropriation for 
general school purposes as a state grevious (sic) and an impo¬ 
sition which calls loudly for reform. 

In 1854 the grand jury urged a poll tax to support public edu¬ 
cation, and issued a long deliverance on the evils of the public school 
system as it was actually administered: the bad schools were due 
to bad patrons who allowed bad teachers to be imposed upon them. 
The grand jury urged careful placing of schools, selection of able 
superintendents, examination of teachers, compulsory attendance, 
and uniform courses of study. Many people ignorantly assume that 
such ideas were never presented to the attention of the people be¬ 
fore the Civil War. 

Singing There was no more popular type of school in the early days 
Schools t ] lan “ s i n gi n g school,” and Spartan District produced 
one of the most famous of the old-time singing teachers in “Singing 
Billy” Walker, who at the age of twenty-six published a book of 
which eventually more than a half million copies were sold, and 


Schools and Learning 


101 


which passed through repeated revisions. There are four distinct 
editions—the first in 1835, and later ones in 1847, 1849, and 1854. 
This book, Southern Harmony, contained altogether two hundred 
and nine songs and hymns, drawn from various sources. The 1835 
edition contained twenty-five of Walker’s original contributions, and 
the edition of 1854 contained forty. Two which had appeared in 
the edition of 1847 were omitted from the later one. Walker pub¬ 
lished several other song collections, one called Christian Harmony 
almost rivalling the more famous Southern Harmony in popularity. 
Walker wrote, in the preface to his Christian Harmony: 

We have traveled thousands of miles in the Middle, South¬ 
ern, and Western States and taught a number of singing schools— 
all the time consulting the musical taste of the clergy, music 
teachers, and thousands of others who love the songs of Zion. 
By the year 1851 Walker had developed a distinct theory of teaching, 
as is shown by his advice to would-be teachers: 

We recommend young teachers and those who want to teach, 
and all others, male or female, who wish to understand the 
science of music thoroughly, to make Normal Schools of from 
thirty to one hundred pupils, employ an experienced Professor 
of Music, who is a master of the science, and have sessions of 
twenty or fifty days in a regular succession, where you can be 
taught. Meet early in the morning, say 9 o’clock; stay till 3 or 4 
o’clock in the afternoon. In these schools you not only learn 
to sing, but how to sing properly. The author having taught 
many schools in the last fifteen years, and brought out more 
good teachers than in five times the number of common singing 
schools, believes therefore that he cannot commend Normal 
Schools too highly. 

Other Spartanburg singing masters or music lovers who con¬ 
tributed to Walker’s books were Andrew Gramling, J. G. Landrum, 
James Christopher, and William Golightly. Two of the songs lo¬ 
cally written were entitled “Pacolet” and “Cleveland.” 

In recent years the growing interest in musical history has led 
to a renewed recognition of the valuable contribution made by 
Walker. Walker’s own pride in his achievement is evinced by the 
fact that he always, in his later years, signed his name William 
Walker, A. S. H. (Author Southern Harmony). His name was so 
inscribed on his tombstone. In 1937 the Woman’s Music Club of 
Spartanburg undertook the restoration of his neglected grave, which 
is in the Magnolia Street “Village Cemetery.” The quaint tomb- 


102 


A History of Spartanburg County 


stone was re-set and was enclosed by an iron railing, which is be¬ 
lieved to have been made at the Hurricane Shoals Iron Works. 
Upon the completion of this work of restoration, a memorial service 
was held at the grave, March 16, 1939, as a part of the program of 
the annual convention of the music clubs of South Carolina, then 
in session in Spartanburg. New editions of Southern Harmony, 
one a replica, have been published in recent years. 

Music in The curricula of the first “female schools” show 

Female Schools that much emphasis was placed on music. The 
first faculty of Limestone Springs Female High School had seven 
members, two of whom devoted themselves to “Music, Piano, Guitar, 
Organ, Harp.” Within two years, when the faculty had increased 
to eleven, there were four who taught only the musical branches. 
Vocal music every day was required of every student. 

Only through chance references in old diaries or reminiscences 
does it become clear that most of the flourishing communities had 
amateur bands, and that the better academies promoted “literary 
associations,” “lyceums,” and the like in their territory. The musters 
and the public exhibitions and examinations had always bands to 
enliven their exercises. Much vague tradition has come down of 
the old-time fiddlers and singers. 

Organs of Public The people throughout the district read the 
Opinion and Culture Spartan —usually so called, although its name 
after 1847 or thereabouts was officially the Carolina Spartan. In 
the pages of this paper appeared much selected matter from other 
county papers—notably the Greenville Mountaineer, the Cheraw 
Gazette, the Camden Journal, the Abbeville Banner, the Anderson 
Gazette, and the Pendleton Messenger. The Spartan culled regularly 
from the Philadelphia Saturday Courier, Neal’s Saturday Gazette, 
the Columbia South Carolinian, the Charleston Courier, Evening 
Mercury, and News. These old-time county weeklies had much the 
flavor of the present-day digests and served the same end, providing 
people with interesting matter for thought and discussion. 

The only instance in the ante-bellum period of an effort to es¬ 
tablish a local paper outside the courthouse town was the proposed 
publication of the Carolina Progressionist at Cross Anchor. Ap¬ 
parently it never progressed beyond its prospectus and first copy, 
which appeared in September, 1859. What it stood for may be 
gathered from the editorial notice given it by the Spartan of Sep- 


Schools and Learning 


103 


tember 15, in which it was described as “long-expected, well gotten- 
up, and full of original matter.” The editor of the Spartan was 
friendly, but he could not resist the dry, caustic comment: “We 
warn them that their Jordan will be a hard road to travel.” 

The motto of the new publication ran, “He that will not reason 
is a bigot; he that dare not reason is a slave; and he that cannot 
reason is a fool.” The editors were professed believers in phrenology 
and spiritualism and were outspokenly “free-thinkers,” whose aim 
was to “unfold to readers the splendid principles of the great Law 
of Progress” through “Spirit-Intercourse.” They claimed indepen¬ 
dence and originality, and declared their intention to speak the truth 
on all things regardless of public opinion. 

No copy of the Carolina Progressionist is known to be in exist¬ 
ence. It presents an instance of radical and unconventional think¬ 
ing in Spartanburg that was exceptional. Possibly the actual hard¬ 
ships and difficulties which confronted Spartans in their daily lives 
so entirely engaged their minds as to exclude from their attention 
metaphysics and philosophy. 


CHAPTER TEN 


The Prosperous Fifties 

Community During the quarter century preceding the War of 
Development Secession small villages grew up around the mills 
at Fingerville, Bivingsville, Hurricane Shoals, and Mountain Shoals. 
Of all these places only Fingerville retains its original name. Biv- _ 
ingsville is now Glendale; Hurricane Shoals is now Converse; Moun¬ 
tain Shoals is now Enoree. Crossroads taverns gave their names 
to several settlements; for example, Cross Anchor is believed to 
have received its name from a tavern sign. The wide distribution 
of mineral springs and their influence in determining community 
centers is evident from the most casual study of the map. Churches 
often provided names for communities in which they were located; 
thus Philadelphia Church gave to a community its name—changed 
in recent years to Pauline. New Prospect owes its name to a church. 

In some instances leading citizens secured post offices to which they 
gave fanciful names; New Hope, the home of the Snoddy family, 
was a stagecoach stop for more than a half century and a post office 
on the road from Greenville to Spartanburg; Walnut Grove, the 
home of Captain Andrew Barry, became a post office, and eventually 
gave its name to the community. Many places took their names 
from influential families; among them, Hobbysville, Cashville, Pooles- 
ville, Kilgore, Earlesville, Gowansville. Sometimes a name was 
chosen because of physical characteristics; for example, Rich Hill, 
which during the forties and fifties had a considerable reputation 
because of its fertility and its abnormal freedom from killing frosts 
during a long growing season. 

Communications Stagecoach and mail schedules give some concep- 
and Travel tion of the isolation of these communities, and 

the difficulties the inhabitants encountered in getting together. Roads 
were all of dirt, worked intermittently and according to local stand¬ 
ards of efficiency. Nearly every rain stopped all travel by washing 
away bridges or making mudholes in the clayey soil, in which car¬ 
riages and wagons would become hopelessly stuck. Even as late 
as 1858 Spartanburg had mails to and from Charleston, Augusta, 
and the North, only three times a week. As late as May 22, 1856, 
the Columbia mail was held for several days at Glenn Springs be¬ 
cause of heavy rains for three successive days. In 1853 citizens 
104 


The Prosperous Fifties 


105 


began agitating plans for daily mails to and from Columbia; on 
April 10, 1858, Dr. L. C. Kennedy presided as chairman over a 
public meeting to move for daily mails to Greenville and Ruther- 
fordton; finally, July 8, 1858, The Spartan boasted, “At last daily 
mails from Columbia and Union.” 

Tri-weekly stages operated between Spartanburg Court House 
and the “head of Laurens railroad,” by way of Glenn Springs, leav¬ 
ing Spartanburg at 7:00 a. m. on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays; 
and leaving the head of the road “on the arrival of the cars” on Tues¬ 
days, Thursdays, and Saturdays. Two hotel keepers, Harvey of Spar¬ 
tanburg, and Sullivan of Asheville, in 1860 established a tri-weekly 
stage line between Spartanburg and Asheville, arranging the schedule 
so as to leave Asheville in time to reach the top of the Gap just at 
sunrise, to breakfast at “Wash Whitesides, one of the best eating- 
houses in the West,” and to dine at Rutherfordton. Returning, this 
order was reversed. These stages were drawn over the old-time 
dirt roads by two horses, following the route by Hickory Nut Gap, 
Chimney Rock and Rutherfordton, and requiring the entire day 
from dawn to sundown for the trip. Stages left Asheville on Mon¬ 
days, Wednesdays, and Fridays; and Spartanburg on Tuesdays, 
Thursdays, and Saturdays. 

People living in neighborhoods out of easy reach of post offices 
sometimes made up clubs to take turns in going for the mail to the 
nearest post office. The entire District went wild with the excite¬ 
ment at the prospect of a railroad, and every community found ex¬ 
cellent arguments for having a station located within its area. When 
the route was selected and the decisions of engineers and directors 
were made known, heart-burnings and resentments inevitably arose, 
and some disappointed and disgruntled citizens who had pledged 
support withdrew their subscriptions to stock. The District, as a 
whole, however, entered with enthusiasm into the selling of railroad 
bonds and securing of rights of way. Communities not included 
on the first road at once began making plans for other roads. 

Agricultural To the farmers the prospect of a railroad was 

Societies and Fairs a g rea t stimulus. They felt that their climate 
was not well adapted to the raising of cotton, and they could not 
advantageously plant grain for shipping without better facilities for 
its transportation to market. 

In July, 1853, a call was published for the “reorganization of 




106 A History of Spartanburg County 

the Spartanburg Agricultural and Mechanical Society.” The called- 
for reorganization was effected, and in 1855 the Society held its 
first annual fair, Tuesday, September 30, 1856, in the Palmetto 
House and on the adjacent lots. The exhibits included livestock, 
farm and industrial products, and fancy work. Among the pro¬ 
ducts exhibited were home-manufactured buggies, saddles, shoes 
and boots, corn brooms, “Negro Cloth,” domestic wool blankets, 
and wrought-iron gates. During the morning an elaborate program 
was held, the principal address being made by Dr. J. W. Parker of 
Columbia; and the business was transacted. In the afternoon the 
judging was done; and in the evening an elaborate supper was en¬ 
joyed, provided by the ladies. The scope of this first fair is shown 
by the treasurer’s report: “Men’s department—amount received by 
initiation fees, $77; amount expenditures for prizes, $58; balance in 
Men’s department, $19. Ladies’ department—amount received by 
initiation fees, $7; net proceeds Ladies’ Fair and Supper, $44; 
by cash subscriptions for supper, $4; amount of expenditures for 
prizes, $50; balance in Ladies’ department, $5.40.” 

Each exhibitor paid an initiation fee of $1; or a lady might, if 
she preferred, make a donation to the supper—for which a charge 
was made. Officers of the Society were: Simpson Bobo, president; 
J. W. Miller, O. P. Earle, B. F. Kilgore, A. E. Smith, J. Winsmith, 
vice-presidents; T. Stobo Farrow, secretary and treasurer; A. T. 
Cavis, corresponding secretary. On the executive committee were 
Gabriel Cannon, J. C. Oeland, J. A. Anderson, Jr., T. O. P. Vernon, 
J. C. Zimmerman, Simpson Bobo, and T. S. Farrow. A second 
fair was held October 7, 1857, and was characterized by the Express 
as most creditable. There was a long list of premiums. 

In the spring of 1858 the Bethel Agricultural Society was formed 
with Colonel John M. Crook as president and B. F. Kilgore as sec¬ 
retary. It held its first fair at “Bethel Meeting House, Woodruff’s,” 
October 16, 1858, and had a large premium list, the awards including 
many silver cups. This society drew its membership from upper 
Laurens District and lower Spartanburg. 

Military A considerable increase of military enthusiasm in the 
Enthusiasm District may be traced to the effects of a visit made 
to it by the Washington Light Infantry of Charleston, in April, 1856. 
This famous company encamped from Saturday to Monday on the 
campus of St. John’s School—now the campus of Converse College— 


The Prosperous Fifties 


107 


and were guests of the town and in turn hosts to the population. 
They drilled and paraded, and were entertained in the evening by 
the citizens at the Palmetto House. On Monday morning they 
continued their spectacular march to the Cowpens battleground, and 
there, in the presence of a throng of spectators from the surround¬ 
ing country, they erected a monument. The ceremonies and speeches 
made a great impression throughout the District. 

Inspired by this example, the Spartans, within a month, organ¬ 
ized the Morgan Rifles. Later this company was presented with a 
flag of heavy crimson silk, measuring thirty-three by forty-two 
inches, and mounted on a staff made from a stout young hickory 
cut from the Cowpens battleground. This flag had on one side “a 
prettily executed painting in oil, representing one of General Mor¬ 
gan’s Riflemen in the act of rescuing a helpless mother and child 
from the ruthless attack of an Indian.” On the obverse was a pal¬ 
metto tree, scrolled above the branches of which were the words: 
“Presented to the Morgan Rifles by the Ladies of Spartanburg 
Court House, January 17, 1858.” Under the tree was the legend, 
“Ubique patriam reminisci” Elaborate ceremonies, which included 
a parade, a banquet, and many speeches and toasts, accompanied 
this presentation. 

Other companies were organized or revived throughout the 
District; military balls and dinners and tournaments were arranged ; 
patriotic anniversaries were celebrated with enthusiasm. The col¬ 
onels’ musters were well attended. The crowd at Bomar’s Old 
Field, July 4, 1858, consumed 1,700 pounds of barbecued meat. 

Varied Besides local undertakings, Spartans interested them- 
Activities se l V es in various matters during the decade preceding 
secession. They organized a Mount Vernon Association, of which 
J. H. Evins was secretary, and a Ladies’ Mount Vernon Memorial 
Association, of which Mrs. Martha Wofford was president; and 
through these organizations funds were raised throughout the Dis¬ 
trict to aid in the purchase of Mount Vernon. They raised more 
than their quota toward the completion of the Washington Monu¬ 
ment. They gave liberally for the Charleston yellow fever sufferers. 

The “Western Migration” is repeatedly mentioned in reminis¬ 
cences of the years 1845-1860. The white population of Spartan¬ 
burg District in 1840 was 17,980 and in 1850 it was only 18,358. 
The departure at one time of forty members of the Bethlehem Bap- 


108 


A History of Spartanburg County 


tist Church, with their families, presents a striking example of 
what this migration meant. These people gathered in the old church 
for a farewell service, and when the service was concluded they 
remained in their seats, weeping and sobbing. 

From Wood In the years preceding the War of Secession the little 
to Brick shabby town of Spartanburg became beauty-con¬ 

scious ; its wooden stores were torn down and replaced with brick 
ones—several of them with imitation brownstone or iron fronts. 
Rows of chinaberry trees were planted about the square and along 
some of the principal thoroughfares; new streets were opened, and 
sidewalks were laid; curbings were placed about the square and 
along some of the streets, and some streets were paved with brick. 

The merchants displayed all of the latest and most fashionable 
goods—hoops, bonnets, leghorn straws, mantillas. Book stores and 
drug stores were established. There were saddlers, upholsterers, 
leather manufacturers, carriage and wagon makers, as well as min¬ 
isters, doctors, and lawyers. New families were constantly moving 
in, so as to more than replace those lost by the heavy Westward 
migration. In 1853 the courthouse village claimed 1,800 population, 
and had four churches, five schools, nine lawyers, six doctors of 
medicine, two hotels, and eighteen stores. 

Elegant An idea of the homes built by prosperous Spartans in 
Homes this p er i 0( i may be formed from the descriptions in cur¬ 

rent advertisements. In 1853 T. B. Collins advertised for sale a 
house on Main Street with an eleven-acre tract of land. The di¬ 
mensions of the house were 50x90 feet, and it contained fifteen 
separate apartments, with seven chimneys, and ten fireplaces. It 
had, besides, a good detached kitchen, a good well, two springs on 
the place, and what Mr. Collins described as “the ordinary out¬ 
buildings.” This Collins was the Presbyterian elder referred to 
by Major Kirby as his Sunday School teacher. Having moved 
to town to educate his children, he now desired to retire to his plan¬ 
tation. 

A “beautiful brick Gothic Cottage,” built about 1850, on Church 
Street, “two hundred yards from Main Street, three hundred yards 
from the Courthouse” (which at that time faced the Square at 
the eastern corner of Magnolia Street), was described in an adver¬ 
tisement offering it for sale as containing four rooms 18x20, and 
four bedrooms, smaller but of good size. The main house was 


The: Prosperous Fifties 


109 


connected by a veranda with a good brick kitchen. On the grounds 
were a “smoke-house,” a “negro-house,” a stable for four horses, 
with a harness room, a carriage house, and a large loft. On the 
lot—which had an area of one acre—were a fine well, a fine flower 
garden in front, and a vegetable garden in the rear. 

In 1858 J. Wofford Tucker, “desiring to remove to the West,” 
offered for sale a residence “in a delightful neighborhood midway 
between Wofford and the Female College,” on a lot containing two 
and a half acres, and bordered on three sides by streets sixty feet 
wide. The house was of brick, and contained six rooms besides 
three basement rooms, and had front and rear porticos above and 
below. A brick building with three rooms, designed for kitchen 
and servants, stood in the rear; and also stables, a horse lot, a good 
well, and a garden. This house, much altered, stands today. 

Along Main Street and on Church Street today several of Spar¬ 
tanburg’s spacious ante-bellum homes still stand to exemplify the 
tastes and standards of ante-bellum Spartanburg. 


Gardening Ornamental gardening became so well established in 
the fifties that a professional gardener, Lewis Bosse, took up his abode 
in Spartanburg. He laid off and planted the grounds of homes 
along Main and Church Streets. Bosse contributed to the local 
press, during the late fifties, a series of articles on gardening and 
floriculture. Magnolia — originally Rutherford Street — is said to 
have been so named because of a handsome magnolia tree in front 
of the home of Simpson Bobo, where the courthouse now stands. 
Bosse may have planted this tree. Magnolia, in 1860, was the 
leading residential street. 


New Churches July 23, 1850, the Episcopalians laid the cornerstone 
of Stone 0 f the Church of the Advent, using brick. Bishop 

C. E. Gadsden presided over the ceremonies and the 
Reverend A. H. Cornish, rector of St. Paul’s at Pendleton, made 
the address. In 1853 this building was described as rapidly nearing 
completion, but it was not actually finished until during the war, when 
the Reverend J. D. McCollough had the brick removed and a granite 
structure erected. It was the nave of the present Church of the Ad¬ 
vent, which, from the start, has been one of the loveliest buildings in 
Spartanburg. The Methodists in 1853 replaced the modest little 
frame structure in which they had worshipped with one of brick, 
large for the period, its dimensions being 60x44. It had what was 


110 


A History of Spartanburg County 


then a new-fangled feature, a basement for Sunday School use. 
The Baptists, who were numerically far the strongest denomination 
in the town, found their church incapable of accommodating the 
throngs who flocked to hear the Reverend J. G. Landrum, and they 
also built a new church, which was dedicated the fifth Sunday in 
August, 1856. The Reverend Dr. Thomas Curtis preached the 
sermon, and the Reverend Richard Furman and the Reverend J. G. 
Landrum participated in the service. This church occupied a lot 
on the corner of North Church and Wofford Streets. It was of 
brick and had a slender steeple of great beauty. The old Baptist 
Church was sold to the Odd Fellows for use as a school. The 
Presbyterians had built in 1845 a brick church, which stood in an 
oak grove on East Main Street about midway between Liberty and 
Converse Streets. These were the churches of Spartanburg thirty 
years after its incorporation. 

A New In 1856 a new courthouse was begun, on the site of 

Courthouse the one> w hich was demolished in three weeks, 

beginning May 12. Efforts were made to secure the preservation 
of the old one as a town hall, but in vain. The contract for this 
third courthouse was awarded by the commissioners to Maxwell and 
Bost, for $13,000 and the old building. Most present-day Spartans 
are familiar with the appearance of this courthouse, as shown in 
the picture of “The Square in 1884.” The building was of brick 
with a brick colonnade in front, the pillars coated with white plaster. 
The offices were on the ground floor, and the second floor was oc¬ 
cupied by the court room and jury rooms. Wide stone steps with 
curving iron railing led from the street to each side of the upper floor. 

Elaborate ceremonies marked the laying of the cornerstone, July 
4, 1856. Many fraternal organizations and hundreds of citizens 
participated. The orator of the day was the Honorable T. O. P. 
Vernon, and he set forth the most extreme secessionist views, as¬ 
serting that cotton was the nation’s greatest asset, that it could not 
be produced without slave labor, and that a stoppage of cotton ship¬ 
ments would bring the whole country to financial collapse. Major 
J. E. Bomar led the Masonic orders in sealing the cornerstone. In 
it were placed a census of the District, lists of office holders, political 
and civic and fraternal, copies of local publications —The Carolina 
Spartan, The Spartan Express, and The Literary Star —and the 
silver plate taken from the old courthouse. This third courthouse 


The Prosperous Fifties 


111 


was completed and occupied September 3, 1857. The venerated 
Judge J. B. O’Neall was the first to dispense justice in it—a fit¬ 
ting honor to him and to the District. 

Additions to The town council, possibly stimulated by the example 
the Square 0< f t h e Strict, bestirred itself and erected “a neat 
brick building” over the public well in the center of the square, and 
in 1858 added to it a cupola for the nine o’clock bell. A facetious 
letter to the Spartan, signed “Jonnidab,” remonstrated with the coun¬ 
cil for “hanging a nigger bell right over the public well in the middle 
of the town, right spang in the center of this romun metropolis.” 

The Palmetto House, built by Junius Thomson in 1850, was 
claimed to be the most elegant hotel in the State outside the Charles¬ 
ton Hotel. It was sold at public outcry August 11, 1853, for $17,400 
—much less than its original cost. The purchasers were Alfred 
Tolleson, Wm. H. Trimmier, A. H. Kirby, and H. C. Poole. It 
contributed a large share to the “Roman” appearance of the little 
Up Country metropolis, and was the scene of many historic feastings 
and gatherings. 

Wofford The bequest of $100,000 by Benjamin Wofford, a Method- 
College p reac her of Spartanburg, “to found a college in my 

native district,” and the establishment of the college in Spartanburg, 
was by far the most important event in the cultural development 
of the town and district. This gift was at the time the largest ever 
made for the cause of education in the South, and it insured the 
founding of an institution of learning on a stable basis and with 
high standards. The citizens of Spartanburg gave the land for the 
campus, and the Fourth of July, 1851, was made memorable in the 
history of the town by the ceremonies connected with the laying of 
the cornerstone of Wofford College. 

Major Hosea Dean presented to the committee a specially pre¬ 
pared stone taken from his own quarries, near town. The proces¬ 
sion, which formed on the square to march to the scene of the 
cornerstone-laying, was a half-mile long, and had in it town officials, 
public men, civic and fraternal organizations, and private citizens, 
besides those church dignitaries and Masonic officers who had more 
immediate responsibility for the program. The principal address 
was made by the Reverend William M. Wightman, D.D., who was 
to be the first president. Worshipful Master William B. Seay laid 
the stone and sealed into it a leaden box containing the mementos 


112 


A History of Spartanburg County 


regarded as appropriate to the occasion. Major G. W. H. Legg, 
intendant of the town, was marshal of the day, and was assisted 
by A. G. Campbell, H. S. Poole, and “Singing Billy” Walker. 

The stately hall, with its unusual twin towers, was to rise rapidly 
and serve as one of the most cherished landmarks in the district. 
H. H. Thomson, one of the town’s leading citizens and largest land¬ 
holders, was chairman of the building committee. Today, on a spot 
immediately in front of the college, a simple stone marks the spot 
where lie the mortal remains of Benjamin Wofford and his wife. 
On it is the famed and suitable inscription, “Si monwnentum requiris, 
circumspice,” with the names and dates of birth and death of the 
founder and his wife. 

Wofford College was chartered in 1851 and opened its doors for 
the first session August 1, 1854. President Wightman delivered 
the first baccalaureate sermon in the chapel, Sunday morning, July 
15, 1858, the churches of the town suspending their usual services 
in honor of the occasion. At night, on the same day, the Reverend 
J. W. Cross, D.D., preached the commencement sermon of the 
Female College, in the Methodist Church. 

Female The Spartanburg Female College was the sister of Wof- 
College ford; because agitation for its establishment was begun 
immediately upon the announcement of Wofford’s bequest. A com¬ 
mittee of the Methodist Conference of South Carolina recommended 
the establishment of a female college in Spartanburg, and the local 
paper burst forth: “Huzza for the Iron District;” but opposition 
developed, and the best Spartanburg could do was to undertake 
locally the erection of such an institution and depend on the support 
of the conference. Camden was an active contestant for the loca¬ 
tion of the college. One of the interesting arguments advanced by 
Spartans for their city was that in Camden board cost $192 a year, 
while just as good board could be provided in Spartanburg for $90 
per year. Subscriptions were raised, land was donated, and a spa¬ 
cious campus was secured. The tract now forms part of the Spartan 
Mill village, and the only one of the buildings yet standing is used 
as a community center for the mill population. 

The Female College began with bright prospects, its construc¬ 
tion proceeding at the same time as that of Wofford. The 
street connecting the two institutions was improved and named 
College Street—a name which to this day serves as a reminder of a 



Wofford College 



The Baptist Church of the Fifties 


















The Prosperous Fifties 


113 


chapter in the educational history of the town. J. Wofford Tucker 
was the first president of the Spartanburg Female College, having 
been for a number of years a lawyer and associate editor of the 
Spartan, and a representative of the District in the State Legislature. 
With him were associated the Reverend Charles Taylor and Miss 
Phoebe Paine, who came back to Spartanburg on the invitation of 
the trustees of the Female College. The college was never financially 
successful, and suffered from many changes of teachers. Tucker 
removed to St. Louis, and was succeeded by the Reverend Charles 
Taylor, who resigned the next year, and was succeeded by Reverend 
Joseph Cross, D.D. Professor William K. Blake accepted the pres¬ 
idency in 1859, coming to Spartanburg from a successful career as 
president of Fayetteville Seminary. He conducted the college with 
success until war conditions forced its temporary closing during 1863. 

Other Meanwhile the Spartanburg Female Seminary and the 
Schools Male Academy prospered. Several other schools flour¬ 
ished in the fifties. The Odd Fellows conducted a school for some 
years, and then sold or leased their building for a “select school 
for young ladies.” J. Forrest Gowan, a native son, who wrote 
poetry and fiction, was also a teacher, and advertised “classes on 
Friday evenings at seven o’clock for Young Gentlemen, in Elocu¬ 
tion, Composition, and Penmanship; and on Monday afternoons at 
two o’clock for Juveniles.” 

The Episcopalians of the vicinity manifested great vitality and 
educational enterprise during this period. In 1853 two of their 
clergymen, the Reverends John D. McCollough and T. S. Arthur, 
bought some property at Glenn Springs for the purpose of estab¬ 
lishing an Episcopal Female College. Apparently they abandoned 
this plan, for the next year the Reverend J. D. McCollough bought 
a tract of land in Spartanburg and erected on it what he called 
St. John’s College. This he sold to T. S. Arthur for $5,200. Arthur 
and William Irwin operated it for some time at a loss. Then Arthur 
sold his interest to Irwin, who had been in charge of the Male 
Academy, and he transformed the institution into a classical, scien¬ 
tific, and military academy, under the name “St. John’s High 
School.” It occupied the present site of Converse College, and 
operated successfully until 1862, when it was closed, and Irwin 
joined the Confederate Army. Spartans boasted of the beauty 
of the school’s grounds, the city-like air of its plant, the home-like 


114 


A History of Spartanburg County 


tone of its life, and the excellent ratings its graduates received at 
the South Carolina College. 

The Spartanburg In the spring of 1854 the Spartan found itself 
Express with a contemporary, the Spartanburg Express, 

with the mottoes, “For the Encouragement of the True, the Useful, 
and the Beautiful,” and “I was born free as Caesar; so were you; 
Shakespeare.” The new journal was published every Thursday, as 
was the Spartan; and both devoted themselves to the advertisement 
of the town and district. The Express presented many interesting 
articles on national affairs, and was especially remarkable for the 
care with which it reviewed Southern magazines and books. 

Working on As early as 1849 it was clear that railroads were 
the Railroad feasible, and a charter was secured for the Spartan- 
burg-Union Railroad. Meetings were held, companies formed, and 
stock subscribed for the construction of plank roads, as well as for 
railroads. Politicians declaimed, editors expounded and business 
men organized; but not until November, 1859, did a train pull into 
Spartanburg. 

The ten years that elapsed between the first agitation for a rail¬ 
road to Spartanburg and its successful culmination were filled with 
struggle and clashes of opinion. In June, 1853, the editor of the 
Spartan deplored the “sleepy condition on the subject of Plank 
Road improvements” that existed locally and pointed out the danger 
that Spartanburg might lose the Rutherford trade if she did not 
compete against a plan on foot to build a plank road from Cleveland, 
N. C., to Yorkville. Spartanburg had nearly 1,000 population, but 
was so inactive that Laurens was about to enter into a movement 
to extend her railroads to Mills Gap and thereby get the trade which 
should be Spartanburg’s. The editor warned Spartans that they 
might be left dependent for their transportation on teamsters who 
would still haul Spartanburg products to market and sleep by the 
roadside, while more alert towns enjoyed the services of iron horses 
and steel rails. Several stock companies were projected for the 
building of plank roads. The Spartan dwelt on the importance of 
developing at once a plank road to Hendersonville to connect with 
the proposed railroad from Union. While Hendersonville was 
distant forty-five miles from Spartanburg and only forty from Green¬ 
ville, yet Spartanburg was fifty miles nearer Charleston than Green¬ 
ville. Moreover, the road between Spartanburg and Hendersonville 


The Prosperous Fifties 


115 


was a better graded one than that between Greenville and Hender¬ 
sonville. 

The people of Spartanburg were much concerned with making 
it possible to import more economically through Charleston; but 
the Spartan editor contended that it was even more important that 
they should plan to build up an export trade. The rich mineral re¬ 
sources of the Piedmont ought to be manufactured and sent over 
the world from the port city of Charleston. The railroads should 
be extended through Tennessee to bring in coal. Spartan manufac¬ 
turers, through wasteful mismanagement, he declared, had almost 
exhausted their forests. The “Old Iron District” would soon have 
to import fuel for smelting ore; Tennessee could supply it. The 
Spartanburg Express, in 1857, boasted that its editor, John H. Evins, 
was in Columbia watching out for the interests of the proposed 
Spartanburg and Union Railroad. 

Many difficulties attended the building of the Spartanburg-Union 
Railroad. The selection of the route was not made without arousing 
bitter feelings among the residents of sections which could not be 
included. The road cost more than was expected; and even after 
construction was well along, the directors were pleading with the 
public to subscribe for additional stock to the amount of $50,000 
to insure its completion. The Asheville, N. C., News advocated a 
railway between Asheville and Spartanburg to connect with the 
Spartanburg-Union road, and urged Spartans to see to it that the 
road under construction be well built. The News remarked that 
nearly every rain “washed out” the Greenville-Columbia road at 
some points. 

It frequently happened that a day would pass when the mails 
were not brought through, because every available train had to be 
used to haul rails and cross ties. In anticipation of ultimate benefits, 
the public was willing to exercise patience on those occasions when 
the railroad authorities published a card stating that the public must 
expect the passenger train from Columbia to Union to run as much 
as three hours late “because of necessary hauling of construction 
materials.” 

The Railroad Eventually the road' neared completion, and it was 
Barbecue possible to set a date for welcoming the first train 

into Spartanburg. Committees which included all of the outstand¬ 
ing citizens of the district were appointed—one on general arrange- 


116 


A History of Spartanburg County 


merits, one for subscriptions and provisions, and one on invitations. 
A “Railroad Barbecue,” to be held November 25, 1859, was planned. 
Papers in Spartanburg, Union, Rutherfordton, Asheville, and Hen- 
dersonvile were requested to publish a general invitation. The edi¬ 
tor of the Carolina Spartan wrote: “We want a rousification— a 
big-gun affair, and you must help with the explosion.” 

The appointed day was pleasant, and the festival brought to little 
Spartanburg, then a village of about twelve hundred population, 
throngs estimated at from eight to fifteen thousand. They arrived 
in every sort of vehicle over all roads—from North Carolina and 
Tennessee, from Columbia and Charleston. 

Plans had been based on the anticipated arrival of the train at 
eleven o’clock. It arrived at one, the delay having been occasioned 
by the necessity for making a second section. It brought the speak¬ 
ers and dignitaries, and a band from Unionville. Alongside the 
railroad station, in long trenches, eight thousand pounds of meat 
had been barbecued. There were speeches, greetings, congratula¬ 
tions, admonitions: Spartanburg was no longer isolated; she must, 
therefore, open up her mines, invite in new enterprises. She was 
already in the lead in the State in educational institutions, mines, 
mineral springs, and water power, which were now for the first 
time made easily accessible. All the speakers agreed that she must 
now develop these valuable resources. 

The Railroad As soon as the Spartanburg-Union Railroad was 
Convention completed—in fact, on November 26, 1859, the day 

following its opening—Spartanburg was the scene of a “Railroad 
Convention” attended by directors of three roads; the Cincinnati, 
Cumberland Gap, and Charleston Railroad; the Greenville (Tenn.) 
and French Broad Railroad; and the Spartanburg-Union Railroad. 
The object in view was to consolidate the three companies. This 
step was of vital importance in the development of Spartanburg. 

To the rank and file of citizens, the daily departure at 4 a. m. of 
a train bound for Columbia, the patronage in summer of boarders 
from the Low Country, and the possibility of freighting cotton and 
machinery by rail instead of laboriously hauling them to or from 
market, these benefits were enough. But to the builders of Spartan¬ 
burg this first railroad was but a step in the transformation of their 
town into a great center. 


CHAPTER ELEVEN 

Social Life in the Old Days 

Spartan Rigor The name Spartan was well chosen for a region 

and Compensation where the earliest social centers were block¬ 
houses and forts. Pushing toward the Cherokee frontier as they 
did, the first settlers paid the penalty of their daring by having to 
live for nearly a score of years under the menace of Cherokee ven¬ 
geance. Tradition says they devised signals and, when Indians were 
reported to be on the warpath, bells were rung or cow-horns blown, 
and the settlers, driving their household animals before them, made 
for. the forts. Sometimes a scalped woman was brought in and 
nursed to recovery. Sometimes part of a family would arrive in 
anguish, having seen their dearest ones scalped or dragged away 
into captivity. At such times the men organized expeditions into 
the Indian country to attempt recapture or reprisal, leaving their 
women and children at some fort. 

Yet, even in such circumstances, life was not without its joys. 
Courtships went along famously. Broken hearts found balm. For 
example, the widow of John Miller, killed by Indians, was a refugee 
for a time at Fort Prince, and married James Jordan, the com¬ 
missary in charge. He bought an ivory comb and some sugar and 
rice for her on one of his trading trips. There is a story that a 
daughter of the Bishop family got back home after seven years of 
captivity among the Indians, and that she reared a large family. 
Tradition runs that while the men of Nazareth neighborhood were 
at Cowpens, their womenfolk were gathered at the Steadman home 
waiting for Kate Barry to bring them news, and that they made the 
occasion into a quilting party. 

Work Quilting parties and cotton-pickings were frequent social 

Frolics diversions of pioneer women, in the days before Eli Whit¬ 
ney’s gin had relieved them of the drudgery of picking the seed 
out of the cotton by hand. Especially pleasant were those quilting 
parties designed to honor prospective or actual brides. 

Sometimes log-rollings were combined with quilting parties. A 
farmer desiring new land cleared, prepared in advance for the 
occasion by topping the trees in a selected tract and piling the tops 
in heaps. The neighbors invited to help divided themselves into 
gangs. The first gang proceeded to fell the trees. The choppers 
followed, whacking off the limbs, cutting the logs into convenient 
lengths, and placing them in piles. The next gang added the limbs 

117 


118 


A History of Spartanburg County 


to the piles of dried tops already on the spot. Other gangs followed, 
arranging the logs on the heaped-up piles of brush. Finally each 
pile was set on fire and burnt to ashes. Care had to be taken that 
the sparks did not fly too far, and that the fires were put entirely 
out before the party broke up. A log-rolling at its best was com¬ 
bined with a house-raising. Then the choice logs were reserved and 
used in the construction of a new house. In the earliest days, the 
logs were left round and notched to fit, clay being used to chink 
the crevices. 

Corn-shuckings were jolly occasions. They occurred in the 
fall, and, as a rule, were free of any commercialism. The farmer 
issued a general invitation for such a festivity, and his neighbors 
came, bringing slaves and families. The housewives sometimes 
brought along special preserves or cakes for which they were fa¬ 
mous, and all the women busied themselves with their quilting or 
cotton-carding, or with preparing the feast which was to crown the 
men’s labors. The best was none too good for such an occasion. 
Loaded tables were spread on porches and in the yards as well as 
in the dining room. 

Often a jug of liquor was buried in the center of each pile of 
corn and could be passed from hand to hand only when the last ear 
was shucked. Usually a song-leader mounted the pile of corn and 
kept the shuckers busy, hand and tongue. Various quaint customs 
grew up in connection with corn-shuckings. On some plantations, 
when the last ear of corn had been tossed on the pile, the master 
of the plantation must run from the place and all the men must 
chase him. When he was caught, he was placed on the shoulders 
of two men and carried around and around the house, followed by 
the whole crowd, laughing and singing and having a good time. 
Then he was carried into his house. His hat was pulled off and 
thrown into the fire, for he must not try to raise a second crop 
under an old hat. Then his hair was combed, his knees crossed, 
and he must sit in state until all had “washed up” and were ready 
to eat. No sooner was the feast ended than the tables were put out 
of the way, fiddlers tuned up, and dancing, games, or singing began. 
Ante-Bellum As times grew more settled, saw-mills were set up, 

Houses and time an( j labor were available for house build¬ 

ing. Then log cabins were replaced by sturdy—and sometimes even 
stately—framed houses built of hewn logs, of sawed hardwood or 
heart pine, and hand-dressed lumber. Houses were usually weather- 


Social Life in the Old Days 


119 


boarded. Before 1800, bricks were being made on some plantations 
and brick chimneys were being put up, or brick was combined with 
stone. Plaster was early made of the white sand and clay found 
in many parts of the county. So far as is known, few stone houses 
were built in early times in what is now Spartanburg County, al¬ 
though there were some in Cherokee, Union, and Oconee counties. 

Log houses of the type built by the pioneers continued to be the 
typical dwellings of Negroes and very poor white people, even into 
the eighties. How cheaply such a house could be built was set forth 
by Hammond, who estimated that the cost for work and material 
varied throughout the State, according to locality, from $30 to $50. 
This estimate was made for a log cabin twenty feet square, with 
a wooden floor a foot or more above the ground, ten feet between 
joints, plastered outside with clay and ceiled inside with pine boards, 
with a chimney and board roof. A house like this “furnished com¬ 
plete protection against the vicissitudes of the seasons.” 

Many of the oldest dwellings, built of hewn logs, stand to this 
day—remodeled and enlarged. Owners of such homes delight to 
show visitors the sturdy workmanship of their ancestors—the hand- 
dressed timbers and wooden pins and pegs. Whether in town or 
country, and whether simple or stately, ante-bellum homes followed 
a somewhat definite pattern. They were spacious and were sur¬ 
rounded by extensive grounds. The “big house” was the dwelling 
of the owner, and about it were grouped other buildings necessary 
to the operation of the place. Usually an avenue, often curved, and 
planted on each side with trees, led from the “big road” to the 
“big house.” These terms were universally used in rural areas. 
The distance between house and road was sometimes considerable, 
and the avenue wound through a beautiful grove. If the distance 
from road to house was short, a “walk” led to the front door, and 
it was usually bordered with box-wood hedges or flowers. Some¬ 
times there was, in front of the house, a formal flower garden. 
More usually the flower garden was fenced in, and located on one 
side of the house. Grass lawns were exceptional, the walks and 
space beneath the trees being bare ground. 

Behind the big house was always an extensive back yard, in 
which stood a wood house, a wash-place, a smoke-house, and one 
or two cabins. A planter, doctor, or lawyer always had an office— 
a small building containing one or two rooms, set at some convenient 
spot near the house. There was always a stable with its lot. People 


120 


A History of Spartanburg County 


of moderate means combined carriage-house, stable, and barn in 
one building; but the well-to-do had each separate, and of a size 
proportionate to their needs. It was possible in a few households 
to offer a guest his choice of a dozen or more blooded saddle horses. 

On farms and big plantations the cabins of the slaves were built 
near each other, their community being known as the “Quarter”— 
and sometimes the “Quarters.” On the more prosperous plantations 
the slave quarter was as picturesque as the village attached to an 
English manor, each cabin having its flower beds and vegetable 
“patches,” and maybe a cow or goat. 

School From the pioneer days until the present, schools fur- 
Festivities n ished neighborhood entertainment. Spelling-bees, clos¬ 
ing exhibitions, picnics, public examinations, May-day exercises, com¬ 
mencements, concerts, tableaux, and pantomimes — from miles in 
every direction people flocked to attend them. May-day parties were 
elaborate in some of the female schools—with mythological pageantry, 
music, stilted speeches, and elegant refreshments. 

Commencements brought throngs of visitors to all the college 
and academy communities. In July 1858, the town of Spartanburg 
was so over-run with visitors for the Spartanburg Female College 
commencement that a local editor protested that the congestion re¬ 
minded him of New York. At the Palmetto House more than fifty 
ladies were guests, and no telling—according to the newspaper—how 
many men. All private homes were filled, and carriages and other 
vehicles crowded each other on the roads. These visitors came to 
hear eighteen young ladies read compositions on such subjects as 
“The Wanderer’s Dream,” “Life As It Appears to the Young,” and 
“The Toilet.” There was, as always, a concert in the evening, fol¬ 
lowed by a “handsome collation.” 

The commencement at Wofford, ten days later, gave the audience 
sterner stuff. The salutatorian addressed them in Latin. President 
Wightman delivered the diplomas, with a Latin address by way of 
preface. The eleven young men spoke on such subjects as “Con¬ 
science,” “If the Sons of Priam Slumber, Troy Must Fall,” “Conse¬ 
quences of Marathon,” “Crusades,” “Progress of Opinion,” “The 
Paths of Glory Lead But to the Grave,” “The Bible, a Crystal Palace 
For All Nations,” “Our Obligations to Our Predecessors and Debt 
to Posterity,” “Remember That Brave Resolution,” “Distinctions of 
Authorship.” The address of the valedictorian, said the Spartan’s 


Social Life in thf Old Days 


121 


reporter, brought from the audience tears “in pearly strings.” The 
Spartan’s representative did not attend the commencement party, 
because he was “not fortunate enough to get a ticket except under 
circumstances rendering its use incompatible with self-respect.” 

Military The militia system provided for the men a social life 
Ce j e ^* at, ° ns their own. All men between the ages of eighteen and 
torty-hve were liable for militia duty and were required 
to equip themselves and muster four times a year in companies, and 
once a year in battalion and regimental musters. 

•In periods of peace these organizations became farcical, being held 
together chiefly by men of political aspirations who found them con¬ 
venient machines. But the War of 1812, the Mexican War, and 
again the shadow of the approaching Civil War gave them added im¬ 
portance. The sites of many of the old muster grounds are yet 
pointed out in the older communities. 

Musters sometimes became demoralizing because of the drinking, 
horse racing, gander-pullings, wrestling bouts, and so on, which fol¬ 
lowed those formal parades which served only as excuses for the 
gatherings. Barbecued meat and barrels of free liquor were often 
provided by the candidates for office, who made speeches and built 
up their political fences at the musters. “Gingerbread wagons” 
were always at hand, with other refreshments besides gingerbread. 

A Spartanburg citizen wrote a spirited letter to the Spartan, 
September 22, 1853, demanding a reform of the militia system because 
of the shameful conditions attendant on musters, which he charac¬ 
terized as farces; not even the officers knew the manoeuvers and 
evolutions; brawling, drunkenness, card playing, horse racing, made 
the musters demoralizing; and they were money-wasting. 

Not always was attendance at musters confined to the men. 
Often, especially at the closing day of regimental or battalion mus¬ 
ters, ladies were guests, and there were tournaments, accompanied 
by the crowning of a queen of love and beauty, and followed by a 
ball in honor of her and her court. After the militia system was 
stopped during Reconstruction, tournaments continued to enjoy 
popularity. 

For a half-century before the outbreak of the Civil War, an 
“Old Artillery Company,” under Captain James Brannon, who 
served in the War of 1812, paraded at Timmons Old Field. Cap¬ 
tain John H. Montgomery was, as a young man, its orderly ser- 


122 


A History of Spartanburg County 


geant. The old Glenn Springs Cavalry Troop was famous for its 
dashing appearance and for the distinguished companies that at¬ 
tended its parades, picnics, and tournaments—neighboring troops, 
generals, brass bands, governors, and fair ladies. 

Horses in Some of the early settlers from Virginia and Penn- 
Old Times sylvania brought along with them famous “horse¬ 
flesh.” The type of man who today flies his own plane had his 
prototype in the horse-racing enthusiast. The Moores had a track 
on their plantation, Fredonia. There was also a “path” on the 
Vernon place near Wellford. The names of Sims, Gist, Beaty, Lip¬ 
scomb, and Gaffney are especially connected with fancy breeding and 
racing. Enthusiasts flocked to the Limestone Springs Course, near 
Gaffney’s, where Wyatt Lipscomb’s two famous stallions, Monarch 
and Thicketty, proved themselves, according to a newspaper account 
of 1857, “the cracks of our up-country.” At a race in November, 
1857, Thicketty won over Traveler a purse of $3,400. The races 
at Gaffney’s course and on Sims’ path were famous throughout the 
fifties. Both of these tracks were in Union and Cherokee bounds, 
but drew a large following from Spartanburg. Wade Hampton 
raced horses on the Jockey Club turf in Charleston, which were 
trained by Spartan District jockeys. 

A typical well-to-do Spartan family on its way to church, in the 
fifties, made a pretty pageant. A stately, high-swung carriage, with 
its black driver, a small darkey on the “dickey seat,” and its let¬ 
down steps, drawn by a handsome pair of matched horses, conveyed 
the elders and the youngest children. Possibly a buggy or two, or 
a rockaway or a phaeton, provided for others, older or more careful 
of their clothes. Some of the girls and all of the young men were 
likely to go horse-back. Far in advance of the cavalcade would be 
a wagon filled with colored worshipers, who were to sit in the gal¬ 
lery and share with their masters in the worship. From a big plan¬ 
tation, another wagon usually went, filled with provisions for dinner 
on the grounds. People of moderate means packed baskets of food 
into the vehicles in which they rode. Plain people clung to primi¬ 
tive customs, and walked or rode horse-back, often a wife on a 
pillion behind her husband, maybe with one or two children tucked 
in somehow. Similar processions filled the roads on muster days 
or occasions of civic celebration—especially the Fourth of July. 

Gathering* Sunday School Conventions, Temperance Conventions, 


Social Life in the Old Days 


123 


Bible Society Conventions, annual target practices were occasions 
for parades and pageantry, speeches, brass bands, and sumptuous 
eating and drinking. The circus was a great annual event. On 
May 15, 1858, “in the beautiful grounds of St. John’s Classical and 
Military School,” the Morgan Rifles held a target practice. General 
States Rights Gist presented as first prize a silver medal. Major 
Govan Mills, whose plantation included that section of the city of 
Spartanburg known today as Converse Heights, presented as second 
prize a silver medal. The third prize, three ostrich plumes, was a 
gift of Captain G. W. H. Legg. The ladies present spread a “boun¬ 
tiful repast.” This was on the part of Converse College campus 
known as “The Forest of Arden.” 

Mineral Limestone Springs was a small Saratoga for several 
Springs years. But its inaccessibility was a fatal handicap to 
the hotel; it did not draw a sufficiently large patronage to justify 
the investment, and went into bankruptcy. 

Glenn Springs, on the other hand, grew steadily in fame as a 
mineral spring. It had a well patronized boarding house as early 
as 1816; and a company was incorporated to promote it in 1836. 
Whether because its waters were better, or it was more accessible, 
or because its equipment was less expensive, the Glenn Springs 
company enjoyed a steady prosperity, and in the fifties it was the 
scene of political and social gatherings of genuine brilliance. From 
all over South Carolina, and from other States also, its guests came— 
statesmen, politicians, match-making mamas, aspiring beaux, horse- 
traders, literati. All types thronged the place from the thirties till 
the outbreak of the Civil War, which for some years threw it into 
eclipse. Several springs of mineral waters, dancing, excellent food, 
fireworks, croquet, whist, drives to nearby gold mines and points 
of Revolutionary interest, afforded the guests plenty to do. 

Hotels and cabins were built at a number of other springs, which 
enjoyed in their day good patronage. All of them were reached by 
stagecoach or by “hacks” from Clinton, Spartanburg, Pacolet Depot, 
or Union. Spartanburg had two hotels which advertised for sum¬ 
mer boarders and offered hack excursions to any of the springs. 
Limestone and Glenn’s were both lively and gay; but Cherokee and 
Pacolet Springs, and the Chalybeate Springs at Campobello, besides 
several smaller resorts, offered no dancing or amusements, and only 
plain fare. They invited especially the patronage of invalids and 
families. All of these springs brought Spartans valuable contacts 
with a larger world than their own. 


CHAPTER TWELVE 

Secession and War Years 

Resources The outbreak of war came at a most opportune time for 
For War Spartanburg District; the Spartanburg-Union Railroad 
had just been put into operation, and this fact made possible Spartan¬ 
burg’s development as one of the important producing and distributing 
points for the Carolinas and Georgia throughout the conflict. With¬ 
out this means of communication and transportation the wealth of 
natural resources and products could not have been made available to 
the extent they were; nor without this means of marketing their out¬ 
put would farmers and manufacturers have felt encouragement to 
plant and develop their lands and to build and operate their mills. 
The excellent reputation of the schools and colleges was an important 
factor in bringing new residents, and in securing for these institutions 
throughout the war a full attendance. The demand for implements 
of war, food stuffs, and clothing stimulated every mill and manufac¬ 
turing plant in the District. The hotels at the mineral springs offered 
attractive refuge for many whose homes were in the vicinity of war 
activities. 

According to the 1860 census the District had a population of 
26,919. Of these 18,679 were whites and 8,240 were colored. Of the 
Negroes, fewer than one hundred were free. There were in the 
District 3,386 families, and the real estate valuation amounted to more 
than six million dollars, and the personal property to more than ten 
million. The hotels at Cedar, Glenn, Limestone, and Cherokee 
Springs advertised in the Columbia and Charleston papers and enjoyed 
a considerable vogue. The District contained 34 Baptist churches, 
valued at $44,100, and accommodating 19,250 attendants; 22 Metho¬ 
dist churches, valued at $18,750, and accommodating 7,025; 3 Pres- 
terian churches, valued at $10,500, and accommodating 1,600; and 2 
Episcopalian churches, valued at $4,000, with accommodations for 
550. The schools at Reidville and Limestone Springs, not yet offi¬ 
cially called colleges, were well patronized, as were Wofford College 
and the Spartanburg Female College, and the several academies scat¬ 
tered over the District. Numerous corn and flour mills were in opera¬ 
tion, and their number increased rapidly under the war demands for 
flour, meal, and grits. There were at least ten cotton and wool mills, 
some quite small. 

124 


Secession and War Years 


125 


Vigilance Societies, During the fall of 1859, and the year following, 
Minute Men, military organizations were being formed and 

were drilling; and, throughout the District, lib¬ 
erty poles and flags were being raised with patriotic ceremonies. The 
Wofford College students, February 22, 1860, organized the “South¬ 
ern Guards.” Sentiment in Spartanburg for secession was intensified 
day by day. November 1, 1860, a meeting was called, through the 
Spartan, for the formation of a Vigilance Association, “in view of the 
present state of our political affairs and the impending crisis.” De¬ 
cember 1, 1860, the Minute Men of Spartanburg adopted “resolutions 
of thanks to Mrs. Dr. J. J. Vernon, Miss Mary Vernon and Miss 
Minnie Smith, for the beautiful flag which now waves from the Lib¬ 
erty Pole.” These Minute Men adopted as their badge the emblem 
worn by the Nullifiers during the controversy of 1832, a blue cockade 
on which was mounted a gold palmetto button. 

December 18, 1860, Captain William Foster of the Mount Zion 
community organized at Cherokee Springs the Cherokee Vigilant So¬ 
ciety, and a liberty pole was erected with suitable ceremonies, and 
was crowned with the “Palmetto Flag.” This flag was red, and had 
on one side a white lone star, and on the other, a white oval field 
on which was a gold palmetto tree. A similar flag flew from a liberty 
pole at Bivingsville, and at its foot was planted a real palmetto tree 
brought from the coast. At Bomar’s Old Field a Palmetto Flag with 
a pole which stood ninety-five feet high was raised in the presence of 
a great throng of patriotic spectators, and with lengthy speeches and 
military displays. The “young ladies of Limestonce Springs Female 
High School” appeared at one of these flag-raisings, wearing caps 
which bore the letters M. G., meaning Minute Girls. 

The greatest single demonstration in connection with a flag¬ 
raising was the celebration of Cowpens Day, January 17, 1861. The 
Reverend J. G. Landrum made a report on the Secession Convention, 
and other leading men made speeches. The day’s activities on the 
battleground began with a torchlight procession at five o’clock in the 
morning. At ten the Palmetto Flag was hoisted and the military 
evolutions and orations began. More than two thousand people were 
present. The fact that the flag was later secretly cut down in the 
night proved the existence of Unionist sentiment in the vicinity. In¬ 
vestigations were made by a Vigilant Committee, who punished a cul- 


126 


A History of Spartanburg County 


prit who confessed. Another, known to have helped him, escaped in 
spite of the offer of rewards for his capture. 

Steps Toward Meanwhile, in response to the proclamation of Gov- 
Secession ernor Gist and the action of the legislature, Spartans 

called mass meetings to consider the situation. On November 15, 
1860, at a meeting at the Walker House, Judge T. N. Dawkins of 
Union, who had been the leader of the Co-operationists, made a stir¬ 
ring speech in favor of immediate secession. At this meeting Simpson 
Bobo, who had in 1832 been an outstanding Unionist, ended a moving 
address with the sentence: “Painful as it is to utter the word, I 
must say that this Union must be dissolved.” 

The most noted meeting of the period was held at the Palmetto 
House, November 24, in preparation for the election to the State Con¬ 
vention to be held December 17. Simpson Bobo was chairman of the 
committee on arrangements, which included a representative body of 
citizens from all over the District. The Reverend J. G. Landrum 
presided, and vice presidents from the various sections of the District 
were on the platform. The day was filled with heated speeches and 
resolutions, all favoring immediate separate State action. United 
States Senator James Chestnut, Jr., of Camden, and former Judge 
Magrath delivered orations, and the day’s proceedings ended with a 
torchlight procession of the Minute Men. The election was held De¬ 
cember 6, and the six delegates chosen each received more than a 
thousand votes: J. G. Landrum, A. B. Foster, Benjamin F. Kilgore, 
James H. Carlisle, Simpson Bobo, William Curtis. On December 17, 
1860, these men, with others similarly chosen from all over South 
Carolina, met in the First Baptist Church, Columbia, and organized 
what is known in history as the Secession Convention. This conven¬ 
tion, because of the appearance of smallpox in Columbia, adjourned to 
Charleston, and there, December 20, signed the Ordinance of Seces¬ 
sion. 


First Call In response to Governor Gist’s November proclama- 

For Volunteers ti on> com p an j es had organized and drilled and were 
now ready to respond to call. In January, mustering officers posted 
the following notice in Spartanburg: 


Secession and War Years 


127 


RECRUITS WANTED 
Able-bodied Men Wanted 
for 

THE ARMY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 
To 

Enlist for One Year 
Pay $11.00 per month 

Rations and Clothing same as U. S. Army 
Non-commissioned Officers 
will receive pay 
as follows: 

1st Serg’t $20.00 

2nd Sergt’s 17.00 

Corporal 13.00 

Apply at my office, Spartanburg Court House 
John R. Blocker 
Lieut. S. C. Army 

Off for In spite of their elaborate preparations the volunteers were 
Camp taken by surprise when the call actually came to proceed 
to Charleston for training. Great plans had been made in Spartan¬ 
burg for celebrating the fifth anniversary of the Morgan Rifles, April 
19, 1861, with a tournament on the St. John’s campus at eleven o’clock 
in the morning and a Social Party at the Palmetto House in the eve¬ 
ning. Prizes were to include a saddle, an ostrich plume, gilt spurs, 
and a plated bridle bit. Three generals, four colonels, two lieutenant 
colonels and other military leaders had accepted invitations to be 
present. But instead of tilting on prancing steeds at a rate of one 
hundred fifty yards in nine seconds, the prospective celebrants were, 
April 13, six days before the date set for this brilliant event, off for 
camp. 

The official call of the Fifth Regiment Volunteers to immediate 
service, which forced a cancellation of plans for the tournament, 
brought the people nearer to a realization of the impending conflict. 
Soon letters came from the coast, where the recruits were training, 
reporting that the soldiers had constant drill, daily prayer, and no 
drinking. 


128 


A History of Spartanburg County 


Off for After a few weeks of such drill the soldiers came home, 
Virginia M a y 28, to enjoy a seven-day furlough before proceeding 
to Virginia. In this body were the Pacolet Guards, the Lawson’s 
Fork Volunteers, the Kings Mountain Guards, the Morgan Light In¬ 
fantry, the Tyger Volunteers, and the Spartan Rifles—in all numbering 
more than 300 of the 5th Regiment’s total enrollment of 1,150 men. 
The Spartan Rifles enjoyed the distinction of having been the first 
company of volunteers enrolled from Spartanburg District. They 
were marched out April 10, 1861. A quiet and subdued throng of 
friends and relatives gathered at the train on Monday morning, June 
3, to see their soldiers depart to fight “ruffian Northern mercenaries 
and miserable recreants”—the words of the Spartan reporter. Fore¬ 
boding filled the minds of the citizens, and although it was salesday, 
usually a day of brisk business and social activity, the crowds at the 
station scattered quietly to their homes, in no mood for talk or trade. 

Spartan Companies Before the end of the year Spartanburg had 
in the Field fourteen companies in the field. In the 5th 

Regiment, Colonel Micah H. Jenkins, were the Spartan Rifles, Cap¬ 
tain Joseph Walker; Morgan Infantry, Captain A. H. Foster; Law¬ 
son’s Fork Volunteers, Captain R. B. Seay; Limestone Springs Com¬ 
pany, Captain J. Q. Carpenter. In the 3d Regiment, Colonel James 
H. Williams, were the Blackstock Volunteers (Glenn Springs), Cap¬ 
tain Benjamin Kennedy; Cross Anchor Volunteers, Captain Thomas 
B. Ferguson. In the 9th Regiment, Colonel J. D. Blanding, were the 
Cowpens Guards, Captain William Foster. In the 6th Regiment, 
Colonel L. Linder, were the Limestone Springs Infantry, Captain 
W. D. Camp. In the 13th Regiment, Colonel O. E. Edwards, were 
the Forest Rifles, Captain D. R. Duncan; Pacolet Guards, Captain 
W. P. Compton; Cherokee Guards, Captain Joseph Wofford; Iron 
District Volunteers, Captain A. K. Smith; Brockman Guards, Cap¬ 
tain B. T. Brockman. In the 15th Regiment, Colonel Jones, the 
Enoree Rangers, Captain Niles Nesbitt. 

Soon cheerful letters came from Virginia, declaring that the 
Third and Fifth Regiments, in which at that time most of Spartan¬ 
burg’s soldiers were enrolled, were the best in the field. The volun¬ 
teers wrote enthusiastically of their camp in a clover field, with stones 
for tables and seats and pillows. When news came to Spartanburg 
that some of her sons were killed at Manassas, like true Spartans the 
people called for volunteers to fill their places. The first men from 


Secession and War Years 


129 


Spartanburg reported as killed in battle were H. A. McCravey and 
William Little. 


War Work Behind The actual outbreak of the War Between the 
the Lines States forced upon all citizens many problems of 

adjustment. The war must be financed; all available resources must 
be conserved and placed at the command of the new Confederate Gov¬ 
ernment ; soldiers must be equipped and sent to the front, and their 
families and property must be cared for in their absence. 

The ladies were kept busy making clothes and uniforms for the 
soldiers. Subscription lists were formed to pay for cloth for the uni¬ 
forms. Ten or twelve leading citizens “stood for” the bills, but the 
communities soon, through subscriptions, refunded the outlay. Cap¬ 
tain Benjamin Kennedy bought cloth in Columbia and had a tailor cut 
out for each man in his company a uniform to his measure. These 
were then sent home to be made. So great was the patriotic zeal of 
the women to do their part that there were not enough uniforms to 
supply all who volunteered to make them. Many flags were made 
and painted or embroidered. 


Financing l n the summer of 1861 a committee consisting of Simp- 
the War scm g 0 i) 0j the Reverend N. P. Walker, and James Far¬ 
row was appointed to sell Confederate bonds. These gentlemen met 
with a cordial response, and secured loyal cooperation over the entire 
District. Sub-committees were appointed for Cross Anchor, Wood¬ 
ruff’s, Fingerville, Limestone Springs, and Cedar Spring. In Decem¬ 
ber 1862, the Spartan boasted that the District had not only contrib¬ 
uted as many men as any other, but that it had also taken more Confed¬ 
erate bonds. In 1862 Spartanburg District paid, for the carrying on of 
the war, $44,467.75. In subsequent years direct taxes for conducting 
the war were not levied. At a public meeting held in Spartanburg on 
salesday, December 1863, resolutions were adopted urging the Con¬ 
federate Congress to levy a tax which would defray expenses from 
year to year, rather than continue to sell bonds. These resolutions 
bore the signatures of leading citizens: Simpson Bobo, J. L. Wofford, 
S. N. Evins, John Winsmith, Gabriel Cannon, and John E. Bomar. 

In 1864 the Confederate Government demanded a tithe of produce, 
and mills were authorized to exchange, in behalf of the government, 
thread and cloth for produce. Bivingsville in this way was able to 
supply the government during March 1864, between 8 and 10 
thousand pounds of bacon, 1,000 cotton sacks, and 90 bunches of 


130 


A History of Spartanburg County 


yarn; and Hill’s Factory furnished 5,000 pounds of bacon. The gov¬ 
ernment claimed one-half of a mill’s output. 

Mills and As the war became more and more imminent, the recog- 
Iron Works n j zec [ poverty of the South in manufacturing was felt 
to threaten disaster. The Charleston Mercury, in May 1861, ad¬ 
monished “The Old Iron District” to develop her iron to the utmost, 
and thereby both serve her country and make herself rich; to “become 
another Springfield, giving us the best of weapons in the best of 
causes.” But Spartanburg had depleted the forests which furnished 
the charcoal for smelting and now had to pay the penalty of earlier 
poor management by facing a scarcity of fuel. Many a man must, at 
this time, have recalled with a sense of shock the wasteful methods of 
clearing and burning up the logs in earlier days. 

However, the iron manufacturers did their best. Thirty-two- 
pound cannonballs and eighteen-pound shells were made for the Con¬ 
federacy at Leo’s Foundry near Limestone Springs. The South Caro¬ 
lina Manufacturing Company’s large furnace near Cowpens battle¬ 
ground and the Rolling Mill at Hurricane Shoals were, upon the 
outbreak of war, devoted to supplying the needs of the Confederate 
Government, and turned out bolts, shot, and shell. Limited quantities 
of four-pound cannon were successfully cast. Small mills and smithies 
did their part. Householders were urged to supply as much lead as 
possible to be melted into bullets. Old-fashioned soapstone bullet 
molds were put into use. 

The manufacture of cotton and woolen goods was but one of 
many activities carried on at Bivingsville. A cupola furnace for the 
smelting of iron ore was operated there, as were also sawmills and 
mills for grinding corn and wheat. The most interesting development 
was the construction, about 1864, of machinery which made 600 
wooden shoe soles in one day. Wooden shoe soles were widely used 
by that time, but, so far as is known, Bivingsville was the only place 
where they were made by machinery. 

Soldiers’ Aid and The women realized the value of organization, 
Relief Associations anc j J u ly 18, 1861, the Cross Anchor Military 
Aid Society, the first in the District, was organized. August 9, 1861, 
a Soldiers’ Aid and Relief Association was organized in Spartanburg, 
its members choosing, at first, to designate themselves as Sisters of the 
Confederate States. Enrollment was for the duration of the war 
and annual dues were $1.00. The plan was that this organization 


Secession and War Years 


131 


should be extended by the organization of local branches throughout 
the District. Its officers were: President, Mrs. Jefferson Choice; 
vice-presidents, Mrs. D. R. Duncan and Mrs. H. Bowie; correspond¬ 
ing secretary, Mrs. Hosea Dean; recording secretary, Miss Mary 
Wingo; treasurer, Miss Susan Foster. On the executive committee 
were Mrs. L. C. Kennedy, Mrs. Whitefoord Smith, Mrs. Joe Smith, 
and Mrs. O. E. Edwards. Cedar Spring, Ridgeville, Woodruff, 
Goucher Creek, Hobbyville, Glenn Springs, Gaffney, North Pacolet 
soon had branch organizations. These ladies provided gifts for the 
absent soldiers, ministered to their families, and cared for soldiers 
on' furlough. They assigned a special company to each unit of the 
organization, so as to avoid duplication or omission of attentions. 
They sent “Singing Billy” Walker to Richmond, June 10, 1862, to 
nurse soldiers. Mrs. Belle Lockwood was sent at the same time by 
the Methodist Sunday School Association. These nurses carried 
wines, delicacies, clothing, bedding, and other comforts. 

Soldiers’ Board In December, 1863, the State legislature appointed 
of Relief Soldiers’ Boards of Relief to care for soldiers’ fami¬ 

lies. On this board in Spartanburg District were: John B. Cleveland, 
G. W. H. Legg, Jonas Brewton, P. P. Beacham, Samuel Morgan, 
Aaron Cannon, Oliver Clark, J. L. Scruggs, James Petty, E. P. Brown, 
J. H. Whitmire, Harvey Wofford, John E. Bomar, Bryant Bomar, 
Henry C. Gaffney, Noah Webster, John Strobel, James Nesbitt, David 
C. Burton, O. P. Earle, Jared Drummond, Ibra Cannon, A. J. Daniel, 
J. C. Zimmerman. According to the treasurer’s reports, this organi¬ 
zation distributed to the families of soldiers $28,180.02, besides sup¬ 
plying food and clothing to 990 families consisting of 3,803 persons. 

In April 1864, the ladies of Spartanburg District established an 
orphan asylum for the care of soldiers’ orphans. In the later months 
of the war they established a Wayside Hospital in a house given for 
that purpose by Major T. Stobo Farrow. 

Participation of During all these disturbed times colleges and 

Schools and Colleges boarding schools were maintained. Tuition and 
board charges mounted steadily during the war. In later years some 
of the schools announced to their patrons that provisions were even 
more acceptable than cash. The pupils participated in varied patriotic 
activities, they gave benefit tableaux and concerts; were present at 
drills and rallies; and knit and sewed for the soldiers. President Cur¬ 
tis of Limestone Springs Female High School and President William 


132 


A History of Spartanburg County 


Kennedy Blake of the Spartanburg Female College continued to make 
pilgrimages to Savannah and Charleston to conduct young ladies to 
school. The Reverend R. H. Reid emphasized the importance of 
maintaining the schools; and stressed the necessity to society of pro¬ 
viding education for the children of soldiers by establishing scholar¬ 
ships and training teachers for the future. In December 1864 
Reidville students and citizens gave an evening of “Tableaux” for the 
benefit of the Wayside Hospital in Spartanburg, the proceeds amount¬ 
ing to 50 pounds of flour and $306.30—in Confederate money. Wof¬ 
ford College was kept open, but the number of students and teachers 
diminished. In December 1863, President A. M. Shipp announced 
that generous donations had been secured from leading citizens, 
amounting to $51,000, and that two professors had been added to the 
faculty, with the purpose of educating free of charge all indigent 
orphans of Spartanburg and Greenville districts who might apply for 
such aid. 

Cheer and The railroad was, increasingly, a satisfaction. It facili- 
Gloom tated the coming and going of the soldiers, and it afforded 
safer and quicker transportation of supplies to them than had ever 
been possible before. It brought to Spartanburg welcome visitors 
from the coast country. Many of these war refugees purchased 
homes and established themselves here permanently. It was cheering 
that the Walker House and the Palmetto House were filled to capacity 
in the summer of 1862. 

Yet by this time the optimistic tone of public opinion had begun 
to change. There were wails against extortionists, speculators, dis¬ 
tillers, draft dodgers, and complaisant doctors too ready to grant 
exemptions. Criticism and sarcasm were directed at the legislature 
for misuse of taxpayers’ money on such things as a gun factory in 
Greenville, which was without iron; and ice to make ice cream for 
the soldiers in Columbia, when most countrymen—whose taxes paid 
for this luxury—had never tasted ice cream. Farmers were urged to 
plant grain crops for food, not for distilling, and to resist the tempta¬ 
tion to plant cotton for the blockade runners, who were ready to pay 
exorbitant prices for it. In July 1862, Bethesda Church recalled its 
invitation to the Broad River Baptist Association to meet with it, 
giving as reasons the failure of the grain crop, the state of the country, 
the fact that nearly every home was one of mourning, and the further 
fact that there were not enough able-bodied male members of the 


Secession and War Years 


133 


congregation at home to take care of the duties incidental to the As¬ 
sociation meeting. The Philadelphia Church, which was much larger, 
was not in such distress, and the Association held its meeting at that 
church. 

Premonitions Conditions the following year grew worse. Said the 
of Defeat editor of the Spartan: “War is now by necessity and 
the law of self-preservation, the occupation of the people of the Con¬ 
federate States.” Many preachers and doctors had decided they 
were more needed on the field of war than at home. The papers 
warned against making more cotton than was needed at home and 
urged the planting of more corn and the use of all of it for food. Mor¬ 
alists were still echoing Bishop Asbury’s denunciations of Spartans 
who drank rather than ate their corn. Rising prices caused alarm. 
The newspapers made pleas for rags, which were essential to the mak¬ 
ing of paper. There were two weeks in January 1863, when the Spar¬ 
tan did not appear because it was impossible to get paper. That which 
was finally secured was of such poor quality that the faded files almost 
crumble at a touch, and are in parts illegible. Men wrote public letters 
urging government confiscation of all goods and property; or de¬ 
manding that lists be made and action taken against all who were 
predicting the downfall of the Confederacy. Said one of them: “It 
is treason now to despair of the Confederacy . . . The cause is 
God’s, and it must prevail.” Frequent notices of the sale of land and 
of “likely negroes” may indicate that some men were less hopeful of 
retaining the slavery regime. Dr. R. V. Lemoine visited Spartanburg 
and stirred up much feeling and discussion by attacks on Jefferson 
Davis and his government. 

Deaths Death had touched many households, but not until June 24, 
1863, when the body of Colonel O. E. Edwards was 
brought home for burial, was there a great public funeral. The whole 
population met the train, various organizations in regalia. The Rev¬ 
erend J. G. Landrum preached a funeral sermon in the Baptist Church. 
The Masons officiated at the burial. Every paper had its obituaries, 
and its pathetic notices of disabled soldiers returning home. Daily 
prayer meetings were held in the Methodist Church. Denunciations 
were heaped on profiteers; and those millers, tanners, shoemakers, 
blacksmiths, millwrights, and others who had secured exemption were 
warned that to the front must go all who made exorbitant profits on 


134 


A History of Spartanburg County 


their products. By 1864 prices rose alarmingly—to five and ten times 
their pre-war level. 

Impairment Yet that there were brighter aspects is clear from a 
of Morale pleasing example of patriotism and energy cited by the 
Spartan, September 8, 1864: “Mr. James Anderson, a planter on 
Tyger River, about 84 years of age, yet superintends his own plan¬ 
tation, and has already paid his tithe of oats, hay, and wheat for the 
present year, has hauled and sold to the government a considerable 
amount of flour, and manufactured and sold to the government two 
hundred gallons of molasses, at schedule prices, and promises to do a 
great deal more. Mr. Anderson did not wait to be called on for any 
of these articles, but came up nobly through a sense of duty. We 
commend his example to the old men (The Property Holders) of the 
country, and would rejoice to see them do likewise. Haul in supplies 
for the government and do not wait to be visited on the subject. If 
the liberal and patriotic spirit of Mr. Anderson should prove con¬ 
tagious, we would then hear no more of half rations among the sol¬ 
diers.” 

In the phrase, “half-rations among the soldiers,” the editor touched 
on the crux of the situation. Hungry soldiers, conscious of hungry 
families at home, and apprehensive of raids on them, could not main¬ 
tain their morale. The murmur deepened that it was “a rich man’s 
war, and a poor man’s fight.” 

Deserters Colonel J. D. Ashmore, August 1863, reported that he had 
a list of 502 deserters; that along a mountain frontier of 
one hundred fifty miles, in Spartanburg, Greenville, and Pickens Dis¬ 
tricts, they were collected in armed organized bands. He requested 
a cannon to reduce a strong blockhouse of deserters near Gowans- 
ville, and said these deserters were preying on the property of loyal 
citizens. His comments on the conditions back of this situation are 
interesting, for he said bluntly that the men were in many cases 
infuriated to their course by extortion and speculation—war profiteer- 
ing—practiced by the men at home. 

Home There had always been a disaffected element in the upper 
Guards sections of Greenville and Spartanburg Districts and in the 
mountains of North Carolina. In these sections deserters found 
refuge and welcome in such numbers that on June Salesday of 1863 
steps were taken to organize Home Guards as a protection against 


Secession and War Years 


135 


them. Companies were formed in each community with influential 
leaders as organizers. The State furnished arms and equipment for 
the Home Guards, which in Spartanburg District was an organized 
regiment of mounted infantry, containing ten companies. The com¬ 
manding officers were B. B. Foster, G. W. H. Legg, and T. Stobo 
Farrow—all soldiers disabled for active service by wounds in battle, 
or by illness. The ranks were filled with old men and boys and those 
men detailed to stay at home to manage factories and mills. In No¬ 
vember 1864, the descent of an organized party upon the southern 
parts of Polk County, North Carolina, and the upper section of 
Spartanburg District led to the sending of a detachment of the Spar¬ 
tanburg Home Guards under command of Captain Warren DuPre 
and Lieutenant John H. Marshall against the deserters. Their camp 
was found, but the marauders had taken refuge in the mountains. 

Union Soldiers A few shocking but sporadic inroads by “bummers” 
in Spartanburg f rom the army or the deserters constituted the only 
threats of danger at home. The District was not in the path of 
Sherman's march, and did not suffer as did communities subjected 
to that ordeal. Not until after the surrender at Appomattox 
did a body of uniformed United States soldiers enter the county. 
Then, April 29, 1865, Brigadier General Palmer, in command of a 
detachment which was attempting to capture Jefferson Davis, stayed 
in the town thirty-six hours, establishing his headquarters in the 
home of Simpson Bobo. He knew that Davis, making for the West, 
was on the road between York and Abbeville, guarded by three de¬ 
tachments of Confederate soldiers numbering 2,500 men; and it was 
his plan to push on through Greenville to head off the Confederates 
before they could cross the Savannah River. The Unionists thought 
that Davis was carrying a great amount of gold from the Confed¬ 
erate treasury and they wished to capture this. No efforts were made 
in Spartanburg to interfere with Palmer’s movements, for Spartans 
were convinced that the war was over, and that resistance would be 
folly. 

Record of At last the soldiers came home. During the war, 

Spartan Soldiers Spartanburg District had furnished the Confed¬ 
eracy 3,484 soldiers. Of these, 608 died in service, and about 500 
returned to their homes disabled. Twenty-six companies from Spar¬ 
tanburg were enrolled in the Confederate service from 1861 to 1865. 


136 


A History of Spartanburg County 


The Spartan Rifles was the first company from Spartanburg re¬ 
ceived into the Army of South Carolina. Its officers were: Captain 
Joseph Walker, First Lieutenant John H. Evins, Second Lieutenant 
T. Stobo Farrow, Third Lieutenant Dr. C. E. Fleming. Farrow 
was soon elected major in Colonel A. C. Garlington’s regiment, and 

H. H. Thomson succeeded Fleming, who succeeded Farrow. The 
company had more than a hundred men, and was incorporated into 
the Fifth Regiment, S. C .V., as Company K. In April 1862, when 
this regiment was organized and made a part of the Palmetto Sharp¬ 
shooters, under Colonel Micah Jenkins, Joseph Walker was elected 
lieutenant colonel. Subsequently, when Jenkins was made a brigadier 
general, Walker became colonel of the regiment, and as such led his 
men through the Virginia campaigns, and was present at Appo¬ 
mattox. Dr. C. E. Fleming was transferred in 1862 to the 22nd 
Regiment as surgeon. 

The Morgan Rifles, at a muster at Bomar’s Old Field, January 

I, 1861, divided into two parts, and formed from those who wished 
to volunteer immediately a company called the Morgan Light In¬ 
fantry, of which G. W. H. Legg was elected captain. This company 
drilled every two weeks until called to Columbia for active service. 
When the Fifth Regiment was organized, Captain Legg was elected 
its lieutenant colonel. Thereupon John Benson was made captain of 
the Morgan Light Infantry, which became Company I. It was sent 
to Charleston, April 13, 1861, and encamped on Sullivan’s Island for 
six weeks for training. This company eventually became Company 
D, Palmetto Sharpshooters, under Captain A. H. Foster, sharing 
the experiences of the Spartan Rifles in Jenkins Brigade. This com¬ 
pany numbered 134 in 1862, and, of these, 37 were killed in battle, 21 
wounded, 20 died of disease, and between 10 and 25 surrendered at 
Appomattox. 

The Forest Rifles, organized in the summer of 1861, under Cap¬ 
tain Stobo Farrow, became Company C, of the 13th Regiment, 
S. C. V., which Colonel Oliver Evans Edwards of Spartanburg or¬ 
ganized. The Forest Rifles left Spartanburg August 27, 1861, for 
an encampment at Lightwood Knot Springs, near Columbia, and re¬ 
mained there in training until they were sent, in October, to the 
coast. They did coast duty there until the spring of 1862, when they 
were made a part of Gregg’s Brigade and sent to Virginia. During 
the war, Duncan became major and Carlisle became captain of the 


Secession and War Years 


137 


Forest Rifles, which, under him, as Company C, 13th Regiment, 
S. C. V., Gregg’s Brigade, Hill’s Division, Jackson’s Corps, Army of 
Northern Virginia, surrendered at Appomattox. Its rolls showed 
that it had 122 members, of whom 26 were killed in battle, 35 were 
wounded, an unknown number died of disease or were discharged 
disabled. Twenty guns were surrendered at Appomattox. 

Spartanburg’s Only three Spartans attained so high a rank as that 
Three Colonels co i one i—Oliver Edwards, Benjamin T. Brock¬ 

man, and Joseph Walker. Colonel Oliver Evans Edwards, who or¬ 
ganized the 13th Regiment, was a son of Colonel Zachary Edwards, 
who in the thirties had been a leader of the States’ Rights or Nulli¬ 
fication party in Spartanburg, and was a very popular man, elected 
several successive years to command the 26th Regiment, S. C. M. In 
1850 the son, in his turn, was elected colonel of the same regiment; 
and such was his ability that he was, in 1854, made brigadier general 
of the Ninth Brigade, S. C. M. Two years later he was elected from 
Spartanburg to the legislature, and succeeded himself in 1856, receiv¬ 
ing the largest vote Spartans had ever, up to that time, given a can¬ 
didate for the legislature. While in the legislature he became chair¬ 
man of the committee entrusted with the reorganization of the military 
forces of the State and making it ready for the impending conflict. 

Edwards was prevented by personal obligations from joining the 
Spartan troops which went first to Virginia, but as soon as he could 
do so, he followed them and joined as a volunteer. In a few months, 
however, he came back to South Carolina and organized a new regi¬ 
ment, the 13th, and was made colonel of it. Eight of its twelve 
companies were made up chiefly of Spartans. Its loss during the 
war was 17 officers and 203 men. Colonel Edwards led his regiment 
through the hottest of the Virginia battles. At Chancellorsville, May 
3, 1863, he was mortally wounded, and he died at Goldsboro, North 
Carolina, June 21. His body was brought to Spartanburg and in¬ 
terred with all the solemnity and pomp befitting the occasion, June 24, 
1863. 

Colonel Benjamin T. Brockman, of the Reidville community, who 
had fought under Colonel Edwards, succeeded to the command of the 
regiment. He, like his chief, died from a battle wound, received while 
he gallantly led a charge at Spottsylvania Courthouse, May 12, 1864. 
He had an arm amputated, and died of gangrene a month later, in a 
Richmond hospital. He was buried in Hollywood Cemetery. 


138 


A History of Spartanburg County 


Colonel Joseph Walker, who left Spartanburg as captain of the 
Spartan Rifles, with the first volunteers, was the only one of the 
three Spartans who achieved a rank so high as colonel to return. 
He lived to command a camp of Confederate Veterans named for 
him, and to take a leading part in the upbuilding of Spartanburg. 

Later Years The armies were reorganized in 1862. Some who had 
of the War volunteered for a year refused to re-enlist, and returned 
home. Many resented the increasing severity of military regulations; 
and, especially, they chafed against not being allowed to elect their 
own officers, as had been the custom in the old militia system. The 
draft was generally resented. In April, and again in September, the 
Confederate Government had called all males between eighteen and 
forty-five years old. In 1864 South Carolina raised the upper age 
limit to fifty. Exemptions were granted clergymen, teachers, gov¬ 
ernment officials, and others whose services at home were of greater 
benefit to the government than if they remained in the army. Even¬ 
tually all under sixty were conscripted for duty within the State, 
and substitutes could not be provided. 

As the war went on, it took its toll of Spartans, not merely on the 
battlefields, but also in the hospitals, where dysentery, smallpox, and 
typhoid fever took many lives. Men wounded or too much weak¬ 
ened by disease to serve in battle returned home and served with the 
Home Guards, or in other capacities. Some took matters into their 
own hands and deserted. All through the last year of the war fre¬ 
quent notices appeared in the papers urging deserters to return to their 
posts, and assuring them that no charges would be pressed against 
those who returned voluntarily. 

When the Boys At last the war ended, and the boys began to return 
Came Home home. The soldiers found that life had not been all 
sadness and sorrow during their absence; nor had their own experi¬ 
ences all been harrowing. Defeat brought them no loss of self- 
respect, for they were conscious that theirs had been a creditable 
struggle against overwhelming odds. 

They came home to conditions that, while not normal, had not 
throughout the war entailed real suffering. Coffee and salt and im¬ 
ported goods had not been obtainable, or, if at all, only at the exorbi¬ 
tant prices charged by the blockade runners. But only about three 
thousand of its population of more than twenty-five thousand had 


Secession and War Years 


139 


gone away from Spartanburg District. Those who stayed at home 
had maintained a fairly normal existence; they had raised and raced 
horses, attended concerts and tableaux given for the benefit of absent 
soldiers, spread feasts for Boys in Gray at home on furlough, held 
conventions and camp meetings, and had worked harder than ever 
before in their lives. Every mill in the District had been put in order. 
Every woman had learned how to spin and weave and dye and con¬ 
trive makeshift clothing. 

When the soldiers on furlough were entertained at “magnificent 
suppers” at the Walker House or the Palmetto House, their own 
garments were rough and maybe patched, and their ladies probably 
wore homespun dresses, cornshuck or rye-straw bonnets, and wooden- 
soled, cloth-topped shoes; the bread maybe was of coarse brown flour 
or even meal, raised by mixing sour milk and clean corncob ashes; 
coffee was quite likely a substitute made of parched cereal and po¬ 
tatoes ; pudding maybe was made of home-grown molasses, cornmeal, 
and persimmons. But they had pork and turkey and chickens and 
game and fish in abundance, and home-grown fruits and vegetables, 
and the products of the stills, which never ceased operation in spite 
of stringent regulations and prohibitive licenses. These conditions 
continued for a time. 

Many who had been prosperous and who had ventured greatly 
for the Confederacy found themselves, upon its downfall, with their 
former wealth gone; some capitalists and manufacturers faced bank¬ 
ruptcy. Yet the District itself was here, with its rich farmlands, 
its well-developed manufacturing plants, and a citizenry whose past 
history impelled them to live up to the Spartan standards of energy, 
pluck, resourcefulness, and perseverance. 


CHAPTER THIRTEEN 

Political Cross-Currents—1865-1868 


The Political Confederate soldiers accepted with the surrender 
Situation After th e j(j ea t h a t t he u n j on was indissoluble. A pro- 
the War clamation of President Johnson, May 29, 1865, 

offered pardons to ex-Confederate soldiers, with exceptions based 
on rank of office held and property owned, on condition that they 
take the oath of allegiance to the Federal government. The require¬ 
ment of allegiance was anticipated by the defeated South, but that 
selected groups of citizens should be excluded from citizenship on 
either of the grounds stated was not expected, and seemed to in¬ 
dicate that defeat and surrender were to be followed by vengeance. 


The Administration B. F. Perry was appointed provisional gov- 
of B. F. Perry ernor, and took office June 13, 1865. His first 

June 13, 1865- step was to reappoint to all public offices those 

December 21, 1865 ,,,,,,, , , , ,, 

who had held them under the fallen govern¬ 
ment. He had instructions from President Johnson to assemble 
a State Convention which should take immediate steps to reestablish 
South Carolina in the Union. Perry’s earnest desire was to insure 
that representative and influential citizens should be chosen as dele¬ 
gates to this convention. With this end in mind he secured from 
the President pardons for eight hundred and forty-five South Car¬ 
olinians excluded from citizenship by the proclamation of May 29. 


The Constitution The Convention met September 13, 1865, with 
of 1865 one hundred and sixteen delegates. Spartanburg 

sent to it James Farrow, J. W. Carlisle, John Winsmith, M. C. 
Barnett, and R. C. Poole. These men, like those from the other 
districts, were influential leaders, safe and sane, and were actuated 
by the purest patriotism. But neither this fact nor Governor Perry’s 
manifest eagerness to see his State again in the Union could offset 
the vengeful spirit of extremists among the Northern Radicals, who 
appeared to be on the lookout for opportunities to make trouble. 
The Convention ratified the Thirteenth Amendment and framed a 
new Constitution which “readjusted the State to the Union without 
sacrificing her integrity.” It evaded the subject of Negro suffrage, 
and provided for several reforms long desired. But it provided its 
enemies with a weapon by enacting a “Black Code” for the regu- 
140 


Political Cross-Currents —1865-1868 


141 


lation of the freedmen, a step which aroused the resentment of the 
North, where it was not realized how necessary some such action 
was, nor how innocent was the South Carolina Convention of intent 
either to affront the conquerors or to wrong the freedmen. The 
Convention adjourned September 27, after having provided for a 
special session of the legislature to be held October 25. At this 
special session, which lasted from October 25 to November 13, 1865, 
dates were set for holding fall elections, and the new Constitution 
was ratified. 


Legislative Session The legislature met in regular session November 
of November- 27 . Spartans, concerned with domestic affairs, 

took no outstanding part in politics during this 
period. They were resigned to the ratification of the Thirteenth 
Amendment, and were pleased with the results of the fall elections— 
in which James L. Orr was elected governor; B. F. Perry and John 
L. Manning, United States Senators; and James Farrow, Congress¬ 
man from the Fourth District. Spartanburg was represented in the 
State Senate by John Winsmith, and in the lower house of the 
General Assembly by J. W. Carlisle, A. B. Woodruff, D. R. Duncan, 
Gabriel Cannon, and Alexander Copeland. The people of Spartan¬ 
burg did not believe that the “Black Code” was other than a wise 
and essential piece of legislation, and felt outraged when D. E. 
Sickles, Military Administrator, declared its provisions void, and 
when Congress refused to seat Perry and Manning and Farrow. 
They approved the course of the General Assembly in its reorgani¬ 
zation of the State militia, a step displeasing to Northern Radicals. 

On December 21, 1865, Secretary of State Seward instructed 
B. F. Perry to relinquish the Governor’s office to James L. Orr, thus 
according to the election at least a partial recognition. 


A Military Orr, in his first proclamation, recognized the supremacy 
Regime 0 f military organization, by which the State was 

divided into military districts, and garrisons were stationed in the 
leading towns. Union was headquarters for the district comprising 
Spartanburg, Laurens, Newberry, and Union. As a concession, for 
the convenience of the people, two assistant provost judges were 
appointed to care for legal transactions in Spartanburg—G. W. H. 
Legg and J. M. Elford. A small garrison of Federal soldiers was 
stationed in Spartanburg; and its relations with the community were 
pleasant enough, as was shown by the comment of the Carolina Spar - 


142 


A History of Spartanburg County 


tan, in May, 1866, when the Federal soldiers were transferred to 
Anderson, to the effect that the garrison had been well-behaved, and 
if the community must have a garrison, it could not ask for a more 
acceptable one. Ex-Confederate soldiers and Union soldiers re¬ 
spected each other. The Confederates were familiar with military 
procedures and not inclined to resist constituted authority. The 
Union soldiers impressed on the freedmen that they must make and 
keep contracts, and hold themselves amenable to the courts; and 
they thus prevented a confusion that might have led to anarchy. 

Resentment The editor of the Carolina Spartan quoted approv- 
and Gloom ingly, March 8, 1866, the New York Times: “The 
Union is restored, and with the restored Union came back the equal¬ 
ity of the States and the full title of each to the privileges conferred 
by the Constitution.” But as the days dragged along, and the papers 
brought news of deepening antagonisms between the President and 
the several factions against him and his policies, public sentiment 
became bitter. In June, 1866, the editor of the Spartan described, 
in a long editorial, the weariness and disheartenment of the people, 
who would cheerfully have reentered the Union before the acts of 
the Congressional Investigating Committee and the Reconstruction 
Committee had inflamed their resentment. What Spartanburg re¬ 
garded as the malice and stupidity of the “iron-clad” oath was es¬ 
pecially galling. In June 1866, because he could not take this oath, 
J. A. Lee, long postmaster at Spartanburg, was replaced with a 
“carpet-bagger.” 

An editorial in the Carolina Spartan, entitled “Fourth of July,” 
sets forth the general feeling of the time: 

We regret that this day. so distinguished, brings us no com¬ 
fort in the contemplation of the great truths which are interwoven 
in the frame-work of the Government of the United States. . . 
Heretofore we rejoiced at the dawn of this once glorious day— 
listened at its booming cannon, and burned with patriotic ardor 
under the thrilling speeches of its inspired orators. Not so now. 
Today, we are excluded from the halls of representation — no 
voice from the sunny South is heard. . . Give us freedom—give 
us liberty—and we shall be glad. Deny us our rights as a free 
and gallant people, and the recollection of ancestral valor will 
hardly awaken other than feelings of sorrow on the advent of 
this day. 

The next Fourth of July was to find the editor more sad and em¬ 
bittered on this great day, for by its refusal to ratify the Fourteenth 


Political Cross-Currents —1865-1868 


143 


Amendment the South had precipitated the Reconstruction policy 
under which it was to agonize for ten years. 

Divisions of Opinion in Spartanburg—as, indeed, throughout the 
Opinion South—was divided in 1866 on a burning question: 

whether or not to send representatives to the National Union Party 
Convention, meeting in Philadelphia, August 14. The editor of the 
Carolina Spartan severely condemned appeals to the South to re¬ 
nounce the Democratic Party and participate in this Convention; 
he reiterated his own opinion that no decent Southern man could 
go to the Philadelphia Convention, despite the fact that forty in¬ 
fluential Senators and Representatives in Congress endorsed it as the 
only practical way for the Southern States to regain their rights. 
Dominant political sentiment differed with the Spartan in Spartan¬ 
burg District, which was represented at the preliminary State Con¬ 
vention held in Columbia, August 1, 1866. One of its delegates, 
James Farrow, was selected to represent South Carolina at the Na¬ 
tional Convention in Philadelphia. 

By request, Farrow made an address at the Courthouse on Sales- 
day in August on “The State of Public Affairs.” He justified 
himself for accepting the appointment to the National Unionist Con¬ 
vention, and announced his determination to cooperate in good faith 
with other delegates, ignoring past differences. He hoped such a 
course might quell the Radicals and hasten the restoration of their 
full rights to the Southern States. Gabriel Cannon, speaking in 
endorsement of Farrow’s position, said that he felt the honor of 
the State would not suffer from following a policy advocated by 
Hampton, McGowan, Wallace, Haskell, and others like-minded. 
Opponents of the policy persisted in their criticism, however. They 
would have Democrats suffer in silence. “Let not the Radical vil¬ 
lains of the North think we crawl,” exclaimed one of them in a 
letter which filled an entire column of the Spartan. 

The editor of the Spartan, commenting on the “Convention Ad¬ 
dress,” conceded it to be well written, and of considerable argu¬ 
mentative force; and he reproduced it in full; filling more than five 
columns. However, the editorial comment on Farrow’s report of 
the Convention made to his Spartanburg constituents on September 
Salesday, dryly repeated the advice to stand aloof. “Stay at home 
and be quiet and trust to events working out,” was, up to the early 
spring of 1867, the Spartan’s policy; but March 2, 1867, Congress 


144 


A History of Spartanburg County 


passed the first Reconstruction Act, based on the assumption that 
no Southern States had governments with legal status; and the 
Spartan said: 

We have hitherto been averse to any action on the part of the 
South . . . thought it best to do nothing and wait— The time has 
now come when the paramount question is what will you do ? . . . 
Granting negro suffrage and consenting to the disfranchisement 
of a portion of our best citizens appear to be the terms on which 
restoration is offered. . . We need not say whether we will adopt 
negro suffrage or not, for that is already inflicted. . . The best 
we can do will leave us for a time an unhappy people. We have 
tried resistance, in every form, and failed. We poured out 
Southern blood like water—we have done all that human bravery 
could do—we have appealed to the nations of the earth, and have 
humbly laid our wrongs before God, and yet we have failed. 
We conclude, therefore, that it would be best that our beloved 
State, with a hopeful eye to the future, bow to the storm now 
raging over her desolated fields and ruined cities, by accepting 
the terms offered. 

The conviction was slowly forced on Spartans that continued 
refusal to swallow the Fourteenth Amendment, which gave the freed 
slaves the unconditional right to vote and hold office, would result 
in confiscation outright, or in foreclosures and sales for taxes, that 
would amount to the same thing. General D. E. Sickles, military 
commander in control of the two Carolinas, had cooperated with 
Governor Orr in the so-called “Stay Law” order, and this coopera¬ 
tion he could stop. Many recognized this legislation as dangerous 
and extra-constitutional, and yet welcomed it for its immediate ben¬ 
efits ; but it was not unanimously approved. Its beneficial results 
were later to be pointed out by James L. Orr as one of his grounds 
for joining the Republican Party. This, to the dismay of his old 
friends, he did in 1868. 

B. F. Perry besought men, during the summer of 1867, not to 
sacrifice their Constitutional rights on the altar of expediency, but 
to withstand the Fourteenth Amendment, to register and then vote 
against the proposal to hold a convention to frame a new State Con¬ 
stitution. After what they had endured, surely Southern men could 
endure four more years of military despotism. In a Public Letter 
he said: 

I will never degrade myself, or my State, or surrender my 
constitutional rights or Republican principles to get back into the 
Union. I will live under a military government, no matter how 


Political Cross-Currents —1865-1868 


145 


absolute or despotic it may be, and bequeath it to my children, 
sooner than vote a Negro government for South Carolina, which 
every man will do who votes for a Convention. 

As for fear of confiscation, Perry pointed out that a State Convention 
offered far stronger threats of it than did Congress. 

The view expressed by B. F. Perry would have been that of 
the Spartan a year earlier; but now that paper argued that men must 
vote for a Convention and secure a share in its proceedings by send¬ 
ing to it the best citizens, men able to influence the freedmen, who 
were sure to outnumber them. Refusal to register and to vote for 
a. Convention would be suicidal, said the Spartan, June 13, 1867. 
Two weeks later the editor slashed out at former Governor Perry, 
urging people not to take him too seriously, even though Perry con¬ 
stantly pointed out that he had during the fifties predicted the dire 
things which had, in the sixties, come to pass; yet, this time, the 
editor protested, Perry’s view was not right. Nor did the Spartan 
endorse Wade Hampton’s view, expressed in a Public Letter. Hamp¬ 
ton deplored divisions of sentiment and policy. He denied the right 
of Congress to prescribe rules for citizenship, and repeated his for¬ 
mer statements that he had rather submit to the existing military 
rule than sanction the Fourteenth Amendment, urging refusal to vote. 

The nature of the political maelstrom is indicated by the revul¬ 
sions in policy of the Spartan, which in October, with bitter sarcasm, 
questioned whether its counsel had been correct, in view of what it 
referred to as the white man’s apathy and the Negro’s stubbornness, 
duplicity, and willful blindness. Furthermore, while conceding that 
Spartanburg had nearly 1,300 majority of white votes, and could 
elect white delegates to a convention, provided one were called, the 
editor realized that such a condition would not prevail throughout 
most of the State, and that even in Spartanburg the Negroes were 
being skillfully arrayed against the whites. Therefore, the Spartan 
said: “There is a great change in the public mind of the District . . . 
very many of our best citizens say that, if they vote at all, they will 
vote against a Convention.” 

Registrations and Much uncertainty attended the question of who 
Elections in 1867 had t he right to register and vote. By its Re¬ 
construction legislation Congress had set aside President Johnson’s 
action in restoring citizenship to ex-Confederates. In July, 1867, 
a Board of Registration was appointed for Spartanburg District: 


146 


A History of Spartanburg County 


Samuel T. Poinier, John Thompson, Javan Briant, John Anderson, 
J. T. Wood, Moses Wakefield, Silas Benson, Dr. J. H. Shores, 
B. H. Steadman. Qualifications for registering were greatly modi¬ 
fied from time to time by the orders of General Sickles and his suc¬ 
cessor, General E. S. R. Canby. Eventually the rolls showed a reg¬ 
istration of 2,710 white voters and 1,448 blacks. At a public meeting 
in the courthouse, November 5, presided over by S. N. Evins and ad¬ 
dressed by B. F. Perry, nominees were chosen for the State Conven¬ 
tion : J. W. Carlisle, J. C. Zimmerman,,S. C. Means, and S. Morgan. 

An effort was made to split the Democratic vote for these nomi¬ 
nees by playing on division in public opinion—and that at a time when 
unity of action among the whites was imperative. The men nomi¬ 
nated November 5 were denounced as representatives of “the ex¬ 
treme party;” and the Union League and Negroes of the other ex¬ 
treme. Neither of these parties, the objectors charged, were truly 
representative of the mass of white voters of the district, who were 
“earnestly conservative.” A third ticket was therefore proposed— 
the People’s Ticket: W. K. Blake of Spartanburg C. H., Dr. Robert 
Smith of Walnut Grove, O. P. McArthur of Limestone Springs, 
and Dr. Shores. W. K. Blake immediately published a card refus¬ 
ing to allow the use of his name on this ticket. 

The Republican Party of the District—usually called the Radi¬ 
cals—met at the courthouse November 13, 1867, and nominated its 
candidates to the State Convention: J. P. F. Camp, Coy Wingo, 
John S. Gentry, and Rice Foster. 

The election was held November 19 and 20, 1867, and results 
were announced in the Spartan as follows: John S. Gentry, 1,580; 
J. P. F. Camp, 1,557; H. H. Foster (black), 1,294; Coy Wingo 
(black), 762; Eliphas Rampley (repudiationist and white), 638; 
J. W. Carlisle, 414; J. C. Zimmerman, 392; Robert M. Smith, 138; 
J. H. Shores, 83; O. P. McArthur, 50; J. H. Vandike, 31; Scatter¬ 
ing, 125. 

The Spartan commented: “We don’t think it worth while to 
make any further analysis of this ‘nigger affair.’ If anyone can 
find any comfort in comparing the facts with the figures, they are 
welcome to do so. We can find none.” The editor estimated that, 
of the 2,710 whites registered, only 700 voted, and of these 510 
against the Convention; and that of the 1,448 blacks registered, prob¬ 
ably all voted for it. 


Political Cross-Currents —1865-1868 


147 


The Constitution General Canby, December 14, 1867, called the 
of 1868 Constitutional Convention, chosen by the Novem¬ 

ber election, to assemble in Charleston, January 14, 1868. Its mem¬ 
bership included forty-eight whites and seventy-six Negroes, all but 
four of the members being Republicans. From the time of this 
meeting until its adjournment, March 18, the Spartan’s columns 
were filled with accounts of the tragi-comedy being enacted in 
Charleston and of the high-handed proceedings of Congress in Wash¬ 
ington. The spectacle of “two obscure white men and two ex-slaves” 
representing Spartanburg District in a Convention to frame a new 
Constitution overwhelmed its editor. “Oh!” he wailed, “ye gods, 
be ready with all your thunderbolts, and—and—and—” Words, in¬ 
deed, failed him for the time. His only comfort was that Spartan¬ 
burg’s “precious delegation” seemed passive. 

On February 28, 1868, at the courthouse “a large and respec¬ 
table meeting of citizens—residents of this town,” organized the 
Constitutional Club of Spartanburg, the object being to prevent the 
adoption of the new constitution. Simpson Bobo presided over the 
meeting, and W. K. Blake acted as secretary. Dr. Lionel C. Ken¬ 
nedy was elected president. Five vice-presidents were chosen: 
Joseph Foster, Dr. J. J. Boyd, John B. Cleveland, John H. Evins, and 
James Nesbitt. Dr. W. T. Russell was elected treasurer, and W. K. 
Blake, secretary. The organizers urged whites and blacks in all 
communities of the District to form similar clubs which would be 
units of the District organization. The response was enthusiastic; 
the Spartan was made the official organ of these clubs, and five 
thousand copies a week were distributed, containing detailed accounts 
of the progress of the movement. 

When the new Constitution was ready to be submitted to the 
voters, the Constitutional Clubs presented, in two broad columns of 
the Spartan, an ADDRESS TO THE REGISTERED VOTERS 
OF SPARTANBURG DISTRICT, prepared and signed by the 
appointed committee consisting of T. Stobo Farrow, John H. Evins, 
S. T. Poinier, and J. J. Boyd. This address analyzed the proposed 
constitution, pointed out its objectionable features, and urged its 
rejection. It also urged the voters to support, in the approaching 
election, April 14-16, 1868, the Conservative ticket, with Joel Foster 
for Senator; and Samuel Littlejohn, Robert M. Smith, Claude C. 
Turner, and Javan Briant, for the House of Representatives. This 


148 


A History of Spartanburg County 


ticket was elected; and the District vote went Democratic by a ma¬ 
jority of 549, and against the proposed constitution. 

Of 339 white men who voted at the courthouse box, only two 
cast Radical votes. About fifty of them voted for the new consti¬ 
tution. In the entire District about one hundred Negroes voted the 
Democratic ticket; about two hundred and fifty whites voted the Radi¬ 
cal ticket. Of registered voters, 1,100 whites and 300 Negroes failed 
to vote—many on account of high water on all the streams. 

The constitution adopted was not entirely obnoxious; on the 
contrary, it embodied many reforms long urged by advanced thinkers 
in South Carolina. But the fact that it was the product of a mili¬ 
tary despotism and that the mode of its adoption outraged every 
political principle dear to their hearts, rendered it hateful to most 
South Carolinians. This constitution was ratified by an overwhelm¬ 
ing majority of the popular vote of the State at large, and was 
approved by Congress June 25, 1868. This was the first time in 
the history of South Carolina that a constitution was ratified by a 
popular vote, and also the first election in which Negroes partici¬ 
pated. There were 133,597 registered voters; 35,551 did not vote, 
27,288 voted against ratification, 70,758 in favor of the new con¬ 
stitution. 

The white Democrats sent a special commission to Washington 
to protest the proceedings of the military government in South 
Carolina, but it received no encouragement. In June Congress pro¬ 
claimed South Carolina readmitted to the Union under the new 
constitution. General Canby instructed Governor Orr, July 6, 1868, 
to turn his office over to Governor-elect R. K. Scott of Ohio. 

Thus was inaugurated South Carolina’s “Carpet-bagger Regime” 
—a nightmare hardly believable when described today. 


CHAPTER FOURTEEN 


The Union League and the Ku Klux Klan 

Shadow of the For many weeks, beginning early in 1868, the Spar- 
Ku Klux Klan tan was reproducing accounts of the activities of the 
Ku Klux Klan in Tennessee, Alabama, and Georgia. The improper 
administration of the Freedmen’s Bureau by the Radicals, and the 
organization among the negroes of the Loyal League—commonly 
known as the Union League—explained the rise of the Ku Klux 
Klan as an inevitable counter-action. In the spring the Klan was 
operating in Spartanburg District. Buildings used by the Union 
League were reported mysteriously burned. Negroes and whites 
began to publish cards explaining that they had joined the League 
under misunderstanding and had now repudiated it. It was clear that 
these cards were written under compulsion. The League retaliated by 
setting fire to the property of men suspected of membership in the 
Klan. 

Federal Soldiers In the upper part of Greenville and Spartanburg 
Again m Counties, along the North Carolina line, a thinly set- 

Spartanburg ^ e( j an d semi-mountainous section was early given 

the appellation “The Dark Corner.” It was a refuge for lawbreakers, 
fugitives from justice who could defy arrest from the officers of one 
state or county by merely stepping across a line. It had many stills, 
which were operated without license, and was famous for its “moon¬ 
shine” whiskey. Through it passed a road from the mountains, made 
in pioneer days by Indian traders and drovers; and it had in it 
strongholds which dated back to the period of Indian warfare. Dur¬ 
ing the War Between the States it had been the refuge of deserters 
or of Union men who resisted conscription and in some instances en¬ 
trenched themselves in the old blockhouses. 

In this section, it was claimed, a Radical turned informer on some 
of his neighbors who were operating illicit stills, and thereby secured 
appointment as a United States Revenue Officer. The resistance of 
his neighbors to his administration of llis new office was of such a 
nature that he invoked military aid in enforcing his authority. This 
brought United States soldiers again to Spartanburg. A small com¬ 
pany arrived in January 1870 “to protect a loyal citizen from the 
repetition of outrages,” according to a sarcastic editorial note in the 

149 


150 


A History of Spartanburg County 


Spartan. In a later editorial the Spartan expressed the opinion that 
if the revenue officer’s appointment had gone to a man who com¬ 
manded respect in the community no open resistance would have been 
offered him in the performance of his duties. Sneeringly dubbing a 
revenue raid, participated in by sixty United States army men, “The 
Second Battle of Cowpens,” the Spartan said: “The last expedition 
of the Spartanburg Revenue Corps, so far as we could learn, was a 
very dull and commonplace affair. A few stills were captured—still 
houses burned—distillers arrested, and some bacon, sugar, and coffee 
and a few horses confiscated. We would be pleased if some of the 
revenue officers would cite us to the law which authorizes confisca¬ 
tion.” 

The grand jury presentment at the November 1870 term of court, 
scathing in its denunciations of corrupt practices by officeholders and 
of the arming of colored men, and especially “the arming of one class 
of citizens whilst the state authorities refused to receive and arm 
companies of the other class,” cited some specific instances of the evils 
indicated. “We present that companies of men in disguise called the 
K. K. K. have been seen riding through the town in the night-time. 
We pledge our assistance in suppressing such unlawful bands, be¬ 
lieving as we do that they intend mischief.” 

Ku Klux November 24, 1870, the Spartan reported that from twenty 
Activities to fifty mounted men, “fantastically attired,” had visited 
the jail at two o’clock on the night of November 17, but failed to 
move the sheriff to admit them. The editor commented: “They left, 
screaming like wild men through the streets, and firing off their guns, 
much to the alarm of the people. This is the first time our town has 
been visited by these outlandish gentry and we hope it will be the 
last . . .” This visit was undoubtedly precipitated by the ship¬ 
ment to Spartanburg, September 24, 1870, of ten boxes of Winchester 
rifles and seven boxes of ammunition to be distributed among the three 
local companies of Scott’s colored militia. White companies which 
had formed and volunteered their services to Governor Scott had 
been refused, while companies of negroes had been organized and 
armed all over the State. To offset the alarming situation thus 
created, the whites privately formed “Rifle Clubs,’’ drilling without 
weapons or with pistols and shotguns. In December 1870, the editor 
of the Spartan boldly pointed out the “singular fact” that “on the 
eve of the last election several persons were cruelly maltreated, just 


The Union League and the Ku Klux Klan 


151 


in time to have three strong Reform boxes thrown out,” and that 
again a suspicious case of cruel beating by “a party of disguised per¬ 
sons” whom Justice Fleming professed himself unable to identify, 
occurred “just before the legislature decided upon a contest concern¬ 
ing the same election.” 

The grand jury in November had presented the fact that one of 
the election commissioners had “refused to sign the false report, and 
made a just and true minority report which was confirmed by the 
State board,” and pronounced, “His conduct commends itself to the 
honest voters of the county.” This man was William Irwin, from 
the outset of the Reconstruction period an outspoken Republican, 
sharing the political philosophy of James L. Orr. Irwin found him¬ 
self in uncongenial company in his political affiliations, as he himself 
made clear during his testimony before a Congressional Investigating 
Committee in July 1871, but he was of the opinion that only harm 
could come from the effort to fight fire with fire, as the Ku Klux Klan 
was doing. Yet he testified before this committee that he had changed 
his mind about the Klan a dozen times in three months. 

It became increasingly clear that several irresponsible bodies in 
the county were operating under the Ku Klux Klan disguise, and 
that both the Radicals and private parties were using its mystic meth¬ 
ods for personal ends. In December 1870, the only colored trial 
justice in the county, Anthony Johnston, was lured from his home 
and murdered. Rumor said that injured husbands and wronged prop¬ 
erty owners did the deed, and that it had no political significance, 
but the Radical press attributed the murder to the Ku Klux Klan, 
actuated by political motives. 

Within two weeks the infamous murder of Matt Stevens by Negro 
militiamen, in the adjoining county of Union, further inflamed public 
opinion. Thoughtful citizens, apprehensive of increased demoraliza¬ 
tion, called public meetings to pass resolutions on lawlessness and 
consider ways and means of checking it. Governor Scott sent Major 
General C. L. Anderson of the Regular Army to investigate conditions 
in Spartanburg County. Additional United States soldiers were sta¬ 
tioned here March 16, 1871, and in accordance with its policy the 
Spartan welcomed them, wondering, however, why they were sent. 
“We are certain,” ran the editorial comment, “they have never seen 
a more quiet place than our town has been since their arrival.” In the 


152 


A History or Spartanburg County 


same week the Honorable Gabriel Cannon, called into conference by 
Governor Scott, earnestly begged him to disband the Negro militia. 

The Case of Dr. On the night of March 22, 1871, a body of disguised 
John Wmsmith arm ed m en, numbering—according to varying esti¬ 
mates—from twenty to fifty, appeared at the country residence of 
Dr. John Winsmith. Winsmith, an outstanding citizen who lived 
a few miles from town on the Glenn Springs road, was of distin¬ 
guished Revolutionary ancestry and had served Spartanburg ably in 
the legislature for fifteen years. He was a scholar and a gentleman 
of high standing socially. In the reorganization of the militia in 
1868 he had been made a brigadier general, having previously held a 
colonel’s rank in the South Carolina Militia. It was now whispered 
about that he had received ammunition and distributed it to Scott’s 
Negro militia—a charge he indignantly denied. Official reports show 
that Brigadier General J. C. Winsmith was allotted, September 1870, 
192 rifle-muskets and 5,000 rounds of ammunition for the use of the 
Negro militia. The fact that the raiding party, March 22, 1871, de¬ 
manded the weapons and ammunition substantiates Winsmith’s claim 
that he did not distribute them. D. R. Duncan, in July 1871, testified 
before the Congressional Investigating Committee that Winsmith had 
told him he had never intended to distribute these supplies to the 
Negroes, and Duncan felt assured he never did. Winsmith had out¬ 
raged public sentiment by announcing that he would support Scott 
in his campaign for re-election rather than join what he regarded as 
the unwise course of supporting a fusion ticket. 

Sixty-eight years old at the time of the attack on him, Winsmith 
met it bravely. With a pistol in each hand, he ordered the mar¬ 
auders off his premises; and on their refusal to leave, he fired both 
pistols. The fire was at once returned and he received seven wounds, 
one very serious. He made a rapid recovery, however, and showed 
his vigor by entering during the ensuing summer into promotion of 
the Taxpayer’s Convention, and by undertaking the study of law, 
being admitted to practice law in August 1871. The secrecy and 
efficiency of the Ku Klux organization is proved by the fact that 
nobody was convicted of the Winsmith attack. Gossip in the county 
has always run that Winsmith killed one man and wounded others. 
A romantic story is told of a fresh grave and of unexplained dis¬ 
appearances following this attack on Winsmith. 


The Union League and the Ku Klux Kean 


153 


Efforts to Curb The Radicals were at this time publishing a sheet in 
the Ku Klux Columbia, called The Daily Union, the nature of 
which is indicated by “A Card” dated May 9, 1871, addressed to its 
editor over the signatures of G. Cannon and A. B. Woodruff. These 
gentlemen denied the truth of its accounts of “horrible outrages in 
Spartanburg” and made the claim that most of the outrages that were 
occurring were personal, not political. Their own statement is en¬ 
lightening : 

... We are citizens of Spartanburg; we know that the as¬ 
sertions that the occurrence of one case of this kind every week, 
• the shooting of thirty or forty, and the whipping of hundreds is so 
wildly exaggerated as to make it entirely unworthy of belief. 

The shooting of Anthony Johnston, a colored man, near 
Pacolet Depot, who was killed, and of Doctor Winsmith, who we 
are glad to say is recovering, constitute the only cases of this kind 
that come within our knowledge in Spartanburg. The cases of 
whipping may have been more common, probably as many as one 
dozen, but “Senex” says hundreds. ... It looks very much as 
if these announcements were made for the accomplishment of 
party purposes and not for the promotion of the general good. 
The principal portion of the citizens of Spartanburg, nearly all, 
we might say, are peaceable, quiet, and law-abiding, . . . and 
we cannot consent that they should thus lie under a general charge 
of lawlessness because a few evil-disposed men perpetrate acts of 
violence to gratify personal revenge. 

Public meetings to check the disorders were held all over the 
county. The legislative delegation consisted of Joel Foster, D. R. 
Duncan, R. M. Smith, J. L. Wofford, and J. Bankston Lyle. They 
earnestly urged public measures to check the Ku Klux activities. At 
the courthouse, J. W. Carlisle and J. H. Evins urged resolutions 
condemning all forms of lawlessness. Gabriel Cannon and A. B. 
Woodruff addressed several meetings over the county. One espec¬ 
ially interesting gathering was that of the colored citizens of Fair 
Forest township, addressed by Isaac and R. M. Smith of Walnut 
Grove. 

The alarmed white men pointed to the fact that not a company 
of white militia existed in the county, and the law forbade all white 
men the possession and use of firearms, while to the Negroes of the 
county had been allotted 912 rifle-muskets and 5,000 rounds of am¬ 
munition. For what purpose, they asked. Such weapons as they 
had, they put in order, and they determined that the rifles sent for 


154 


A History of Spartanburg County 


the use of the Negro militiamen should never be so used. Nearly all 
of these Spartans had been in the Confederate army, or at least in 
the old militia, and could fight, in case of need. Yet they knew what 
martial law, with armed Negroes to enforce it, would mean; and in 
dread of such martial law, thoughtful leaders urged on their fellow- 
citizens all possible patience and forbearance. To the fullest extent 
possible they cooperated with the United States troops stationed here. 

About one hundred United States soldiers were already in the 
county, and seventy-five additional cavalry troops arrived early in 
April, 1871, for the purpose of helping to round up the Ku Klux Klan. 
By fall they had the county jail crowded and the lofts over two stores 
filled with Ku Klux prisoners. Some outrageous stories were told of 
these arrests. J. Bankston Lyle, a legislator, and teacher of the 
Limestone Springs Male Academy, was a reputed leader of the Ku 
Klux Klan. In October 1871, a squad of soldiers sent to arrest him, 
upon being told he was absent, broke down the doors and ate the 
breakfast prepared for Lyle’s pupils. Testimony elicited during the 
Congressional investigation makes it quite clear that in the beginning 
Lyle was a leader of the Klan, and that when he went to Columbia 
to attend the legslature he left his power in unworthy hands. Lime¬ 
stone Springs was a hotbed of Ku Klux activities. Lyle refused to 
endorse some of the later activities of the Klan, and bore a share in 
its suppression. The representative of the New York Herald wrote 
of the absurdity of suspecting a highly educated, cultured man like 
Lyle of having planned certain of the Ku Klux atrocities he was 
charged with, and suggested the probability that Lyle’s flight was 
not a confession of guilt, but an indication that he had no confidence 
in the established government. He also said bluntly that Grant’s 
proclamation, and his suspension of the habeas corpus had spread 
panic through Spartanburg County. He described the situation as 
being such that even a strongly democratic county like Spartanburg 
was unable to govern itself because the new constitution had placed 
power in the hands of the governor and the legislature, and both were 
so corrupt that the governor pardoned convicted criminals and at will 
withheld commissions from elected officers. 

In July 1871, the eyes of the whole nation were—probably for the 
first time in history—turned on Spartanburg. A sub-committee of 
the Congressional Joint Select Committee to Inquire into the Con¬ 
dition of Affairs in the Late Insurrectionary States arrived here July 


The Union League and the Ku Keux Kean 


155 


9, and conducted hearings until July 17. The three members of the 
committee were: Senator John Scott, Republican, of Ohio, chairman; 
Hon. Philadelph Van Trump, Democrat, of Ohio; Hon. Job E. 
Stevenson, Republican, of Ohio. They were accompanied by re¬ 
porters, and the accounts sent to the New York World and the New 
York Herald were especially vivid and full. 

Zero wrote the New York World, in July, pooh-poohing sensa¬ 
tionalism, and commenting, “It is said the committee are getting tired 
of their work, they are disgusted at the idea of being sent hundreds 
of miles to hear ‘Old Wives Tales,’ and to listen with gravity to long 
recitations of family feuds and neighborhood difficulties.” The 
Negroes appeared to Zero “well-satisfied with the situation,” find¬ 
ing it a great honor to testify. “They come out,” he said, “with smil¬ 
ing faces; and one showing a roll of greenbacks in his greasy fingers, 
said, ‘Fore God, Masser, I let the Klues whip me agin for all dis 
money.’ ” 

A letter to the New York Herald dated November 1, 1871, gives 
a picture of Spartanburg at that time, as the village appeared to a 
New York reporter: 

Spartanburg was once a busy, lively town, and when the pres¬ 
ent troubles began, was prospering. In the vicinity are numerous 
springs of nasty mineral waters, which restore life to the dead and 
perform various other miracles upon mortal men, women, and 
children. As a consequence the place was a great summer resort 
in ante-bellum times. Large hotels were constructed, which still 
exist in a battered and unsightly condition, and large numbers 
congregated within their walls to flirt, make love, dance, and play 
poker. 

This glory of Spartanburg has departed. But few persons are 
at the hotels, and those have nearly all been brought here by the 
Ku Klux Klan troubles. At the “Shebang” where I “hold forth” 
are some officers’ wives, who put on an enormous quantity of airs 
and talk a trifle too much about “we Republicans having to come 
down here and make rebels behave themselves.” All this sort of 
stuff don’t help matters much. 

Under the caption, “Progress of the War,” this same correspond¬ 
ent grew facetious, describing Spartanburg and Union as headquar¬ 
ters for United States soldiers, whose only military operations were 
“severe skirmishes with their rations every day.” After recounting 
some absurd tales he continued: 

Indeed, if it were not that this raid upon the Ku Klux was 


156 


A History of Spartanburg County 


playing the very deuce with the industrial interests of upper South 
Carolina, the entire movement would be a huge farce. Here we 
have rebellion without rebels; and insurrection without insurrec¬ 
tionists. Federal officials, it is true, shake their heads and assure 
me that I ought to have seen what it was last March. . . . Any 
person of ordinary education who would believe the charges should 
be sent to an insane asylum. ... It is grossly libellous to 
charge upon entire communities the filthy brutalities of a handful 
of illiterate, degraded scoundrels. 

Suspension of Spartanburg was one of nine counties in which, Oc- 
Habeas Corpus t 0 k er , 1871, the writ of habeas corpus was sus¬ 
pended under an Act of Congress passed April 20, 1871; and was one 
of three—York and Union being the others—in which formal organi¬ 
zations of the Ku Klux Klan were known to exist. Yet, so secret 
and flexible was the organization and so binding its solemn oaths, 
that no accurate story of it can be told. The Klan was most active 
in that part of the county later incorporated in Cherokee County. 
It came into being in 1868 and flared into a fevered activity in 1870 
after Scott armed the Negro militia. Reliable traditions establish un¬ 
deniably that many earnest and patriotic men belonged to the organi¬ 
zation; and it is hardly, in Spartanburg, a mooted question whether 
the good accomplished did not outweigh the evils. The Klan was 
accepted by many high-minded citizens as a necessary fighting of fire 
with fire. No better statement concerning the Ku Klux Klan in Spar¬ 
tanburg County can be made than the tabulation of his conclusions 
with which the correspondent of the New York Herald closed his 
story of the Investigation here: 

1. That for four months past no Ku Klux outrages have been 
committed in Spartanburg County—which the Federal officials 
admit. 

2. That the Ku Klux organization was originally formed for 
the self-protection of its members, and not for any political pur¬ 
pose. 

3. That men of infamous character entered the Ku Klux or¬ 
ganization and perpetrated a series of gross outrages upon indi¬ 
viduals. 

4. That in many instances white and black Republicans bor¬ 
rowed the disguises of the Ku Klux and outraged their neighbors, 
knowing that the blame would not be laid on them. 

5. That if the state government had not been, as it still is, in 
the hands of corrupt and infamous political adventurers, and had 
the laws of the State been fairly and impartially administered, 


The Union League and the Ku Keux Klan 


157 


public sentiment would have crushed the Ku Klux organization 
in its incipiency. 

6. That there was not any necessity for the suspension of the 
writ of habeas corpus, because there was not at any time any 
disposition on the part of the citizens to resist warrants of ar¬ 
rest. Every man in Spartanburg County could have been ar¬ 
rested by a deputy marshal’s posse. 

7. That the Ku Klux, while formidable in numbers, perhaps, 
never entertained the idea of resisting the United States Govern¬ 
ment. If its designs were treasonable, it could, in a single night, 
have overpowered and annihilated the entire military force in this 
county. 

Aftermath of the Senator Scott’s committee was in Spartanburg from 
Congressional J u iy g to j u jy yj an d examined seventy-two wit¬ 
nesses, thirty-six white and the same number col¬ 
ored. Only toward the end were prominent citizens called, and the 
committee finally found themselves unable to make a definite list of 
Klansmen. It was generally believed by Spartans that the actual 
purpose of the investigation was to find excuses for increasing the 
number of Federal troops and to gather material for Republican cam¬ 
paign literature. 

Most of the Spartans who had been imprisoned were dismissed on 
bail, but some served prison sentences in Columbia for weeks. A few 
more were sent to Albany, N. Y. Eventually most of these prisoners 
received pardons from President Grant. The Ku Klux Klan dwin¬ 
dled to nothingness as silently and mysteriously as it had come into 
being. To this day the names and numbers of its members cannot be 
determined. At the November 1872 term of court the grand jury 
stated: 

We take great pleasure in reporting to your Honor that so far 
as comes within our knowledge personally and from information 
received from reliable and trustworthy sources, the County of 
Spartanburg is now entirely free from any unlawful bands of 
raiders or clans or disguised men, and that we know of no recent 
instances of any citizen being molested or maltreated by such 
bands or clans of men, and that throughout the county we know of 
no unlawful combination of men who refuse to obey or who resist 
the laws of the county. 


CHAPTER FIFTEEN 


The Banner District of Democracy—1868-1876 

Spartanburg in The handsome 1,300 Democratic majority in the 

the Democratic elections of June 2 and 3, 1868, prompted the 

Spartan to call Spartanburg the “Banner District” 
—an epithet taken up approvingly by other newspapers. When the 
first legislature under the new Constitution met in special session July 
6, 1868, Spartanburg was one of the six districts whose delegations 
were Democratic, and developments soon made clear their helpless¬ 
ness under the “steam roller” tactics of the Radical power. The 
Assembly had twenty-one white and ten colored senators; and 
forty-six white and seventy-eight Negro members of the lower 
house. 

A large public meeting at the courthouse, August Salesday, pre¬ 
sided over by Dr. B. F. Kilgore, with F. M. Trimmier as secretary, 
endorsed the action of the recent National Democratic Conventions, 
which met in New York, July 4. Colonel T. Stobo Farrow, who 
had attended it as a delegate, made a report of its proceedings. Dr. 
John Winsmith spoke; and also Gabriel Cannon, who advocated 
representation in the State Convention which was scheduled to meet 
in Columbia August 6, in opposition to those who still urged the 
stand-off policy. At this State Convention, Cannon was elected one 
of the four vice presidents. A resolution was adopted to rely solely 
on peaceful agencies in fighting the Radical ring. 

August 10, 1868, the Spartanburg District Central Democratic 
Club, comprising twenty-three member clubs, was organized, with 
John Epton as temporary chairman, and W. T. Miller, secretary. 
Officers were unanimously elected as follows: President, W. K. 
Blake; vice presidents, Dr. J. Winsmith, Colonel J. H. Evins, Dr. 
B. F. Kilgore; secretary-treasurer, Captain F. M. Trimmier; execu¬ 
tive committee, John Epton, Henry Wofford, S. C. Means, T. Stobo 
Farrow, John Stroble, H. Dodd, D. R. Duncan, G. Cannon. One 
week later, August 17, the first Negro Democratic Club in Spar¬ 
tanburg District was organized, with thirty-five or forty members. 
B. Wofford was president, and D. P. Moorman, secretary. 

Outstanding as an example of the use made politically of old- 
fashioned barbecues was one presided over by General J. W. Miller 
at Poplar Springs, August 13, 1868. The Spartan said: “It was 
158 


Thu Banner District of Democracy —1868-1876 159 


indeed a barbecue after the old style, and reminded us of a resurrec¬ 
tion of the time, when on every fourth of July we heard the Declara¬ 
tion of Independence and patriotic speeches and had barbecued din¬ 
ners, and indulged in enthusiasm and reverence for the Independence 
Day. But the meeting at Poplar Springs had for its object the in¬ 
duction of a day more desirable and more important to us than the 
4th now is, or in fact has ever been— the day of the installation of 
Democracy in power” 

More than six hundred men attended the Poplar Springs barbe¬ 
cue, about one-third of them colored. Addresses were made by D. 
R. Duncan, W. K. Blake, and Simpson Bobo. Marshals then led 
the crowd in orderly processions—the Negroes having their own 
tables—to dinner. Bread, beef, mutton, pork, fowls, “in super¬ 
abundance and barbecued in an excellent manner,” were set before 
them. After dinner the stand was turned over to the Negroes; and 
two members of their race from Columbia, named Minor and Lee, 
spoke to them in favor of the Democratic Party. 

A Rally and The Democrats made elaborate preparations for a 

Fireworks rally in Spartanburg, September 10, 1868, on which 

occasion the platform would be formally ratified and candidates 
endorsed. Wade Hampton and B. F. Perry were invited to make 
addresses. Marshals were appointed, and also “committees on Ta¬ 
bles, Fireworks, Barbecue, and Reception.” All inhabitants were 
urged to decorate and illuminate their houses. The crowd in at¬ 
tendance was estimated at 6,000 or more. A procession of clubs a 
half mile long, formed at ten in the morning on the Public Square. 
The Spartanburg Colored Club which brought up the rear was a 
striking feature of it. The Democrats were fighting fire with fire 
again. In the evening there was a torchlight procession followed by 
extravagant fireworks depicting a sea fight between two frigates, 
the Horatio (for Horatio Seymour) and the Ulysses (for U. S. 
Grant). The fireworks presented a false prophecy, for the Horatio 
sank the Ulysses. Former Governor Perry and Wade Hampton were 
not able to accept the invitation to attend this rally, but the list of 
speakers and guests was a notable one, including: Hon. A. A. 
Aldrich, Hon. A. Burt, Governor Milledge Bonham, Colonel F. W. 
McMaster, Colonel J. Baxter, General A. C. Garlington, J. Cothran, 
Esq., Hon. W. D. Simpson, Colonel E. C. McClure. 


160 


A History or Spartanburg County 


Elections Spartanburg’s vote was Democratic in the ensuing 

and Results November election; which, nevertheless, resulted in 
Republican victory in the State. Spartanburg’s legislative delegation 
was as follows: Senator, Joel Foster; Representatives, Samuel Lit¬ 
tlejohn, Robert M. Smith, Javan Briant, C. C. Turner. A. S. Wal¬ 
lace, a Radical candidate, contested the election of W. D. Simpson 
for Congress, and representatives of a Congressional Investigating 
Committee spent three days in Spartanburg, March 29-31, 1869, 
taking testimony concerning the election, in the presence of William 
Choice, Intendant. Thirty-one witnesses were examined and their 
testimony covered seventy-five pages of legal cap paper. Following 
the committee’s report, Simpson was not seated, and Wallace was. 
This A. S. Wallace was, in 1874, accused by reputable citizens of 
having advised the Negroes to resort to cartridge boxes if denied 
access to the ballot boxes. 

Spartanburg remained, after the elections of 1868 demonstrated 
the necessity of organized united effort, a safely Democratic county, 
without strong Radical leadership. The presence of Federal sol¬ 
diers was accepted and made the best of. Few Spartans joined 
the Republican party. An honest Republican could say truthfully— 
as Dr. John Winsmith did before the Congressional Committee in 
1871—“I have as many friends who are Democrats as Republicans.” 


Taxpayers’ 

Unions 


The corruption of the Scott administration and the 
growing demoralization during the ensuing years had 
important consequences. One was the Ku Klux Klan and the evils 
that grew out of it. Another, which owed its origin to the insecurity 
of property, was the organization of The Taxpayers’ Convention, an 
organization distinct from political parties. It was instituted by the 
Charleston Chamber of Commerce, and the first Taxpayers’ Con¬ 
vention met in Columbia, May 9, 1871, Gabriel Cannon and A. B. 
Woodruff representing Spartanburg. A second meeting of the 
Taxpayers’ Convention was held in Columbia, February 17, 1874, 
at which Spartanburg was represented by W. M. Foster and A. B. 
Woodruff. This convention drew up a scathing indictment of the 
Moses administration and created a committee of fifteen to present 
an “Address” to President Grant and request him to lay the South 
Carolina situation before Congress. This committee was insultingly 
received both by Grant and Congress. 

“The Columbia Ring” had gobbled up the Spartanburg-Union 


The Banner District of Democracy —1868-1876 161 


Railroad, and the precariousness of all investments created much 
alarm. The Taxpayers’ Convention sponsored the organization of 
active Tax Unions in every township of every county. Leaders in 
Spartanburg were: W. M. Foster, A. B. Woodruff, Simpson Bobo, 
Joel Ballenger, S. C. Means. Simpson Bobo, president of the County 
Tax Union, also had a place on the State Executive Committee, 
and at a meeting called in Columbia, October 8, 1874, Spartanburg 
was represented by him. The main objective of this meeting was, 
since the appeal to Grant and Congress had failed, to devise some 
other method of ousting the corrupt Radical ring from control of 
the State. The plan adopted was to refrain from placing in nomi¬ 
nation a Democratic ticket, and to throw all the power of the “Con¬ 
servatives,” as they called themselves, with the “Independent” wing 
of the Republican Party. 

Support of This state-wide plan failed of complete success, 

Independent Re- but brought about great benefits. It got out 
publican Ticket th e largest vote since 1868, and cut down the lead 
of the ring in power to such an extent as to alarm its leaders. Their 
nomination of Daniel H. Chamberlain had been already a great con¬ 
cession to decency, since he represented the better type of “carpetbag¬ 
ger.” Chamberlain spoke in Spartanburg, September 28, 1874, at 
what the Spartan described as “the Great Republican Pow-wow.” 

Conforming to the plan of the Taxpayers’ Convention, former 
Governor Perry actively supported the candidates on the “Inde¬ 
pendent” ticket—Green for governor, and Delaney, who was a 
colored man of character and education, for lieutenant governor— 
because they were honest. He said: “The time has come when 
color cannot be considered.” He believed they could and would, if 
elected, clean up the government, and he frankly questioned the 
ability of Chamberlain to do so. The Spartan took the same posi¬ 
tion. When elections came, Spartanburg was still “the banner 
county” of democracy, with a large majority for the “Independent” 
ticket. The Chamberlain ticket, however, carried the State. Spar¬ 
tanburg again sent to the legislature a Democratic delegation: John 
E. Bomar, Gabriel Cannon, A. B. Woodruff, Robert M. Smith. 
D. R. Duncan was reelected as Senator. 

Democratic The Chamberlain administration proved better than 

Club* that 0 f Moses, but yet fell short of stability or decency. 

All over the State the Democrats became increasingly confident that 


162 


A History of Spartanburg County 


they could unite and overthrow the Radicals. The State Executive 
Democratic Committee met in Columbia, January 6, 1876, and for¬ 
mulated plans for organizing Democratic Clubs in all the counties. 
It had been a sacrifice of principle to expediency when Democrats, 
accepting the advice of the Taxpayers’ Convention, agreed to sup¬ 
port the “Independent” Republican ticket in 1874; and a large ele¬ 
ment of the party refused to enter into this movement to undermine 
the power of the Radical ring. 

Divided Opinions As the 1876 campaign opened, the division in 
sentiment was forced into the open. Should the Democrats now 
support Chamberlain? The News and Courier voiced the opinion of 
the “Fusionists,” that influential element of the party which replied 
to this question, Yes. The overwhelming preponderance of Negro 
population explained the position of the Fusionists. 

An opposing faction contended that compromise had been tried 
without successful results and that the time had come for the Dem¬ 
ocrats to nominate a Straight Out Democratic ticket, “from Gov¬ 
ernor to Coroner.” Within their own ranks the “Straight-Outs” 
differed as to the best methods of dealing with the perplexing Negro 
vote. One element wished to rule the Negro entirely out of the 
Democratic Party and face the race issue squarely. General Martin 
W. Gary, “the Bald Eagle” of Edgefield, said that to appeal to the 
Negro to help check Radical corruption was as absurd as “singing 
Psalms to a dead mule.” He urged a straight-out white man’s 
ticket, saying: “The failure to redeem the State and break up the 
Radical rule has been due to the fact that we have not appealed 
to the white man as a white man.” 

The opinion of Wade Hampton was that the Democrats must 
make a bid for the support and cooperation of the Negroes—that 
to allow the Radicals the undisputed control of the Negro vote 
would be to invite defeat. He realized that the only hope of peace 
was for native Southern white men to replace the scheming, office¬ 
seeking Republican interlopers as advisers and leaders of the Negroes. 


Wade Hampton When the Democratic Convention met, the 

and John H. Evms Fusionists were defeated, though by a narrow 
margin. The Straight-outs unanimously nominated Wade Hampton 
for governor, and James Conner of Charleston, a strong Fusionist, 
for attorney general. John H. Evins of Spartanburg, the nominee 
to Congress from the Fourth District, was appointed by the Execu- 


The Banner District of Democracy— 1868-1876 163 


tive Committee to organize Spartanburg County. The Spartan re¬ 
printed, August 30, 1876, with additional encomiums, a comment 
on Evins from the News and Courier. 

. . . The Democratic candidate is Col. John H. Evins of Spar¬ 
tanburg. There is not in South Carolina a finer specimen of 
the liberal and accomplished gentleman. He belongs to one of 
the oldest and best families in the State, is a lawyer by profession, 
and about 43 years of age. Before the war he was a member 
of the State Legislature, and during the war served as Captain 
in Jenkins’ crack regiment, the Palmetto Sharpshooters, at 
Frazier’s Farm. In the seven days’ battle he was wounded and 
. disabled. Since the war he has been an active promoter of in¬ 
ternal improvements, and did much to secure the running of 
the Airline Railroad through Spartanburg. For some years he 
was director of the Spartanburg Airline Railroad. Colonel Evins 
is an able lawyer, and conspicuously able and upright. An elder 
of the Presbyterian Church, he is beloved and honored for his 
purity, liberality, and sincerity in every walk of life. The term 
of office of Colonel Evins will begin on the fourth of March. 

The Spartanburg Central Democratic Club was organized at the 
courthouse, August 5, 1876. John H. Evins was made president; 
J. W. Wofford, secretary and treasurer; W. P. Compton, Charles 
Barry, and E. S. Allen were elected vice-presidents. Steps were 
taken at once for the thorough organization of the county. Two 
Negroes were added to the list of officers as vice presidents. Plans 
were made to hold six grand mass meetings—October 21, at Gaff¬ 
ney City; October 24, at Wellford; October 25, at Pacolet; October 
26, at New Prospect; October 28, at Rogers’ Bridge; November 2, 
at Spartanburg. The committee insisted that “every man in Spar¬ 
tanburg County will mount and attend this last meeting.” 

Evins’ Campaign Not only were these clubs organized, but the 

Working Clubs Spartan Rifles and other rifle clubs were re¬ 

organized, nominally as social clubs. Politics had been subordinated 
to domestic activities most of the time before 1876, but during that 
year all other interests were sacrificed to the promotion of the cam¬ 
paign to elect Hampton. White Republicans came out for the Hamp¬ 
ton ticket; for example, in a speech made Salesda'y of October, 
B. F. Bates announced that, while he was still a Republican and 
expected to vote for Rutherford B. Hayes, he intended to vote the 
Straight-out Hampton ticket in the State election. The “Evins’ 
Campaign Working Clubs” were tireless in their activities. T. Stobo 


164 


A History or Spartanburg County 


Farrow, editor of the Spartanburg Herald, was a member of the 
State Democratic Executive Committee, and his assistance in se¬ 
curing speakers and making plans was invaluable. 

Red Shirts in The campaign reached its peak of excitement when 
Spartanburg Wade Hampton in person visited Spartanburg. 
He arrived by the Spartanburg-Union Railroad at four o’clock on 
the afternoon of September 8, and was received with pomp and 
ceremony. Early the next morning the streets and all the roads 
were thronged with galloping horsemen arrayed in red shirts. The 
purpose of all these demonstrations was to overawe the Radicals and 
impress on the Negroes a renewed respect for the white man’s 
courage and power. 

At ten o’clock on the morning of September 9, 1876, the most 
spectacular procession ever formed in Spartanburg County moved 
from the Square. Immediately behind the Marshals was a deco¬ 
rated wagon drawn by six horses, in which rode the Union Band. 
Next, distinguished by their blue sashes, were the Evins’ Cam¬ 
paign Working Clubs. Behind them rode the Red Shirts Clubs 
from all parts of the county, including the Negro Democratic Club. 
The Spartanburg Band rode next in a four-horse wagon. Then 
came a handsome phaeton, drawn by four beautiful gray horses, 
in which rode General Wade Hampton, General J. D. Gordon, 
Colonel W. D. Simpson, and Colonel James H. Rion. Twelve 
ex-Con federate soldiers, clad in red shirts and blue sashes, and 
mounted on white horses, served as a special escort. In another 
handsome carriage rode Colonel John H. Evins, Colonel B. W. 
Ball, Colonel Samuel McGowan, Colonel T. Stobo Farrow, and E. H. 
Bobo. The rear guard was made up of Wade Hampton’s old cav¬ 
alrymen, led by Captain Niles Nesbitt. 

One mile and a half in length, this procession moved from the 
Square, north along Rutherford (now Magnolia) Street, turned 
east into College, south into Church, and west at Henry Street to 
Twitty’s Grove, a lovely picnic ground in the old days and the spot 
formerly used as a camp by the Yankee garrison. There a speaker’s 
stand had been erected and a barbecue prepared. The speakers were 
greeted with wild enthusiasm, and no disturbances marred the day. 
In the evening a torchlight procession a half-mile long, with twenty- 
five hundred participants carrying clever and spectacular “trans- 


The; Banned District of Democracy— 1868-1876 165 


parencies,” was followed by a display of fireworks; and the day 
closed with an artillery salute. 

Democratic The complete absorption of the people in winning 
Victory the e i ec t} on j s proven by the fact that every business 

house in town stopped work at 4 p. m., November 6, and did not 
resume business until the polls closed the next day. The results of 
the election showed that Hampton received in Spartanburg County, 
4,677 votes, and Chamberlain, 1,467; Evins received 4,671, and A. 
S. Wallace, 1,464; Gabriel Cannon, for state senator, received 
4,478 votes, and C. C. Turner, 1,539. Returns from the Fourth 
Congressional District as given out by the State Board of Canvassers 
showed a Democratic majority of 5,804 for Evins. 


CHAPTER SIXTEEN 


Rails and Expansion 

Problems The war interrupted Spartanburg citizens in the midst 
m 1866 G f a determined effort to make of their courthouse 

town a railroad and trading center. Its end found them confronted 
with grave problems: The schools and manufacturing companies 
had, for the most part, invested their funds in Confederate money, 
and they were now facing bankruptcy. The long-continued strain 
on machinery and equipment had worn them out, and mills must 
be reconditioned or closed. There was no longer the demand for 
goods which had impelled their intense activity during the war, be¬ 
cause the people had not money with which to buy their products, 
and there was not a government to subsidize necessary industries. 
Their reserves were gone, and some way must be found to replace 
them. More distressing than any of these considerations was the 
problem of the freed Negroes, and the necessity of establishing new 
ways of daily living because of Emancipation. Even with return¬ 
ing prosperity, there was much poverty, and its pinch was felt more 
than at any time during the war. Loyal citizens who were suffering 
from consequences of their faith in the Confederate Government 
now took deep interest in the vain efforts of the legislature, in De¬ 
cember, 1865, to “scale” all debts—efforts that were eventually, but 
slowly, through the Stay Law, to achieve desirable results. 

Although under military rule and perplexed about the national 
status of South Carolina, Spartans began the year 1866 hopefully. 
The Spartan, suspended May 1, 1865, resumed publication in Feb¬ 
ruary, 1866. Its files from that time present a vivid picture of 
Spartan courage and energy, with advertisements of Charleston 
wholesale merchants and local merchants, plans for reconditioning 
the railroad, notices of establishment of tri-weekly hack service be¬ 
tween Spartanburg and Greenville, and accounts of community 
activities throughout the District. 

A dark shadow rested over the entire District. Fall had brought 
the time for sowing grain, and hundreds of the people had none 
to sow. Appeals had to be made to generous friends who could 
help them. In the midst of returning prosperity, many women had 
no means of securing a livelihood. Local merchants and associa¬ 
tions were urged to follow the example of Charleston and Columbia 
166 


Rails and Expansion 


167 


by providing sewing and fine needle-work and a market for the 
product of the seamstresses. 

News from Washington grew more and more disheartening. 
Talk of impeachment of the President was growing. South Caro¬ 
lina was still without representation in Congress. Leading citizens 
were without the right to hold office or even vote, except under the 
humiliating procedure of having been granted a “pardon” by Pres¬ 
ident Johnson. 

Prosperity As the year 1867 opened, the people, taking stock of 
m 1867 their resources, saw hope. Of the new crop of 1866, 

more than three thousand bales of cotton had left Spartanburg by 
wagon or train, and the largest holders had not sold. In fifteen or 
twenty brick stores, even though most of them had depleted stocks, 
merchants were enjoying good patronage. A carriage and wagon 
factory was doing excellent business, for the times, and anticipated 
expansion. Two large and prosperous saddleries, two jewelers, three 
colleges, and “one of the best hotels in the whole country” were 
among the assets of the village. 

As the spring advanced, the reports of trade were cheerful. 
Wagons in large numbers came in from the mountains, loaded with 
grain, bacon, apples, potatoes, “mountain dew,” and other goods. 
The Spartan urged visitors from “further down” to come up and 
trade: 

We can furnish them with yams and cloth from our Fac¬ 
tories ; iron, nails, and casting from our Rolling Mills; lime from 
our quarries; wagons, buggies, and carriages from our work¬ 
shops ; harness and saddles by fine workmen; drugs and medi¬ 
cines from two fine apothecary stores, besides dry goods and 
groceries in any quantity and of great variety. Now is the time 
to patronize home enterprise. With good crops and a fair supply 
of money for the purpose of trade, we hope to see Spartanburg 
the most flourishing town in the up-country. . . . 

There were still too many instances of destitution and misery, 
but general prosperity seemed to have returned. In June the farm¬ 
ers in all parts of the District were described as “indefatigable in 
their exertions to make a good crop.” Women helped with the farm 
work. The “freed people,” most of them, had proved themselves 
orderly and industrious. Many farmers were again able to buy 
new wagons and buggies. 

In the fall, streets were crowded with loaded wagons, ready for 


168 


A History of Spartanburg County 


trade and barter. Charleston wholesalers were warned by the local 
paper of the importance to them of holding this trade. The editorial 
rejoicing sounds almost Biblical: 

The time has once more arrived, that there is bread in the 
land—when the sufferings of the poor women and children can 
be relieved; for, such scenes of utter destitution and absolute 
want, as has been witnessed, within the last two years, would 
touch the hardest heart with sorrow and sympathy. . . . Through¬ 
out the whole of last winter and spring, the trade of this town 
was better than it has ever been before, and only the scarcity 
of money prevented it from being much larger. 

Farmers and Repeatedly throughout the year, the editor of 

Agricultural Affairs th e Sp\artan argued for heavy cotton planting, 
pointing out that cotton was always a money crop, and that corn, 
wheat, and peas could not be grown at a profit here. Cotton, he 
pronounced the one hope of the people of this section for “paying 
their debts, taxes, lawyers, physicians, merchants, and other de¬ 
mands and he scoffed at the argument that the South should plant 
only enough cotton for home use so as to “spite the Yankees.” Said 
the editor: “We don’t care now who gets the cotton or who wears 
it so we get its value in money—which money would go a long way 
to help us out of the fix we are now in.” 

The Spartanburg Agricultural Society, “suspended since the 
War,” nominated as delegates to the State Agricultural Convention, 
scheduled to meet in Columbia, April 28, 1869, Colonel G. Cannon, 
Colonel T. J. Moore, Dr. B. F. Kilgore, E. H. Bobo, Esq., John C. 
Zimmerman, Major William N. Foster, Captain A. Dean, Captain 
A. B. Woodruff, Captain A. Copeland, Colonel H. D. Floyd, J. H. 
Garrison, Major Harvey Wofford, Samuel Morgan, James L. 
Scruggs, Esq., John H. Evins, and Simpson Bobo. During the spring 
the Bethel Agricultural Society was revived, with a membership of 
more than one hundred and fifty, and manifested a special interest in 
the development of mechanical aids to agriculture. 

The agricultural societies were soon obscured by the National 
Grange, known as the Patrons of Husbandry, which spread over 
the county rapidly in the 70’s. The Republican organization fought 
it bitterly, denouncing it as “a trick of the Ku Klux Democracy.” 

Railroad While the problems of the freedmen, the shadow of 
Promotion confiscation, and lack of assurance as to their political 
future hung over the people of Spartanburg, they resumed efforts 


Rails and Expansion 


169 


to secure more railroads. The summer of 1866 found plans under 
discussion for the continuation of the Spartanburg-Union Railroad 
to Asheville, and for the promotion of a railroad from Spartanburg 
to Charlotte as one link in a chain from New York to New Orleans. 
In July, 1868, a mass-meeting was held in Spartanburg to promote 
the extension of the Spartanburg-Union Railroad to the Block House, 
a distance of twenty-four miles. 

Surveying parties were at work two years later trying to deter¬ 
mine the best route by which to link Charleston and Asheville with 
the West by way of Spartanburg. Communities were eargerly co¬ 
operating—pointing out the natural advantages of the old trails 
broken by the buffalo and developed by the Indian traders, the 
packsack peddler, the drover, and finally the colonists. 

In September and October, 1871, while United States soldiers 
were galloping through the county and filling the jails with Ku Klux 
prisoners, and the air was permeated with hysteria, level-headed 
citizens were working to secure a railroad through Laurens from 
Spartanburg to Augusta, which, a prospectus pointed out, “would 
run through the wealthiest and most productive portion of our Dis¬ 
trict.” The plans were set forth at a meeting held on October Sales- 
day, presided over by Simpson Bobo, with T. J. Moore as secretary. 
Speeches were made by Gabriel Cannon and John H. Evins, and a 
letter was read from W. D. Simpson. Evins offered a resolution, 
the gist of which was that Spartans were “willing to contribute of 
our time and our money to the extent of our ability.” On the com¬ 
mittee appointed to secure subscriptions to stock were: J. H. Evins, 
G. Cannon, John W. Carlisle, A. Tolleson, A. B. Woodruff, J. C. 
Winsmith, T. J. Moore, F. N. Montgomery, J. B. Davis, D. G. Finley, 
and Dr. B. F. Kilgore. Fourteen years were to pass before these 
efforts met with success; for the branch of the Port Royal and 
South Carolina railroad from Spartanburg to Augusta began opera¬ 
tions in 1885. 

Enthusiasm increased for securing the railroad to Charlotte, 
which would ultimately be a link in the proposed Airline from New 
York to New Orleans. Pleas were made for voters to tax them¬ 
selves the required $50,000, and so secure for their section this road, 
essential to their prosperity. Simpson Bobo, T. Stobo Farrow, Ga¬ 
briel Cannon, and John H. Evins were the outstanding leaders of 
a large group of persistent workers for railroad subscriptions. Pub- 


170 


A History or Spartanburg County 


lie meetings were held in all the populous communities. Sentiment 
was thoroughly aroused and educated. “We can, and must, and 
will have the road this way,” was the keynote of speeches made. 
The importance of securing both these roads and the advantage to 
Spartanburg of the location at their junction were demonstrated so 
thoroughly that the requested tax was voted unanimously. 

Building of When the assurance finally came that the Airline 
the Airline which was to connect New York and New Orleans 
would be run from Charlotte to Gainesville through Spartanburg, 
a communication to the Spartan, June 1, 1871, signed “R,” painted 
a vivid panorama in its analysis of the proposed route: 

The manufacturing interests of Spartanburg are peculiarly 
fortunate. The road crosses Broad River within a mile of the 
Cherokee Iron Works . . . passes through Limestone, with its 
great lime and marble quarries, mineral waters, and costly Sem¬ 
inary . . . passes Pacolet River just above Hurricane Shoals, 
with its extensive Iron Works, Rolling and Casting Mills, Nail 
Works, etc. . . . within a few miles of the large Cotton Factory 
at Bivingsville ... by White’s Mill, through the heart of Spar¬ 
tanburg Courthouse. . . Passing on toward Greenville, Carver’s 
Mills are in sight—then Benson’s Mills on Tyger, Crawfordsville 
Factory being four miles below and that of Messrs. Morgan 
and Montgomery but a mile or so above . . . On to Greenville— 
Batesville and Buena Vista eight miles south of the line, Valley 
Falls three miles North. . . The Cotton Manufacturing estab¬ 
lishment of the Messrs. Hill on Tyger and of the Messrs. Finger 
on Pacolet, the one in the extreme South and the other in the 
extreme North of the County, will have their nearest depot at 
Spartanburg Courthouse. Who knows to what proportions these 
enterprises may grow in the future? If they thrived in the 
past without facilities of communications, how much more will 
they prosper with this great road running by their very doors, 
ready to carry the products of their shops and looms to all the 
markets of the world. 

At three o’clock on the afternoon of March 31, 1873, the first 
train from Charlotte pulled into Spartanburg, and Simpson Bobo 
presided over the ceremonies and festivities which marked the oc¬ 
casion. The engine was immediately covered with flowers and 
banners by the ladies. Sixty ladies and gentlemen of Charlotte, 
with other guests, were entertained by the citizens of Spartanburg 
at the Palmetto House at a “sumptuous dinner” distinguished for 
its “wine and wit and stirring speeches.” Charlotte merchants be¬ 
gan to advertise in the Spartanburg papers. 


Rails and Expansion 


171 


September 7, 1874, a railroad mass meeting and barbecue 
in the town of Spartanburg celebrated the breaking of ground at 
the junction of the Spartanburg-Union and the Airline Railroad. 
The president, directors, stockholders, and honored guests formed 
a procession, led by the Spartanburg Silver Cornet Band. Distin¬ 
guished guests were present from Charleston, Atlanta, Columbia, 
Asheville, Hendersonville, Greenville, Laurens, and Newberry. 
Many newspaper reporters were present. Several thousand people 
stood for three hours listening to speeches. Later, without a dis¬ 
senting vote, a resolution was adopted authorizing Spartanburg 
County to subscribe $100,000 worth of railroad bonds. A ball in 
the evening concluded the celebration. Not until 1879 was this 
road continued as far as Hendersonville. 

The joy of the people was not even dimmed by the arrival in 
Spartanburg within the week of a detachment of the Second Ar¬ 
tillery Regiment, U.S.A., of fifty men acting as infantry, who took 
up winter quarters until after the election. The editor of the paper 
which chronicled his arrival, very dryly commented that Colonel 
Woodruff was reported to be a gentleman, and that Spartans, while 
questioning the necessity of his presence, yet extended him a wel¬ 
come. 

Progress of Cotton All during this period, factories and mills were 
Manufacturing being bought and sold, built and reconditioned. 

Joseph Walker’s Almanac for 1867 listed the cotton factories in 
operation in Spartanburg County as follows: Lester’s Factory at 
Buena Vista (now Pelham), Lawson’s Fork Factory, Valley Falls 
Factory, Fingerville Factory, Hill’s Factory, Cedar Hill Factory, 
Crawfordsville Factory, and Barksdale Factory. 

At the State Agricultural Fair, held in Columbia in the fall of 
1869, D. E. Converse of the Bivingsville Factory was awarded a 
gold medal for the best bale of osnaburg; and $8 in gold each for 
the best bale of shirting, the best bale of sheeting, and the best bale 
of cotton yarn; and $3 in gold each for the best piece of tweeds 
and the best piece of satinet or jeans. 

Bivingsville After their purchase of the Bivingsville Mill, D. E. 
Converse, J. C. Zimmerman, John E. Bomar, A. H. Twichell, and 
their associates, practically rebuilt it, adding an entirely new main 
building and replacing all of the old worn machinery. They en¬ 
larged it so that in 1875 it operated 5,000 spindles and 120 looms, 


172 


A History of Spartanburg County 


and consumed 1,600 bales of cotton per year. They manufactured 
brown shirtings, sheetings, and yarns; and produced 6,000 yards 
of cloth and 500 pounds of bunched yarn per day. Some of the 
best weavers turned out 80 yards of cloth per day and earned from 
$1 to $1.25 per day. The monthly pay roll for the 175 operatives 
was about $3,000. The mill was operated entirely by water power, 
two turbine wheels with 110 horsepower being used. The village 
contained about 60 dwellings and had about 400 inhabitants. It had 
a church, in which were maintained a Sunday School, preaching 
services, and a Temperance Lodge. 

One aspect of the Bivingsville plant which distinguished the old 
ways from present-day methods is the fact that several distinct 
types of manufacturing were conducted in connection with it. The 
company owned and operated “a complete flouring mill with four 
sets of stones;” machine shops; a carpenter shop, with planes and 
circular saws; a circular sawmill with its own wheel; a wool-carding 
mill, which annually carded 12,000 pounds of wool; and two im¬ 
proved cotton gins, which ginned about 500 bales annually. 

Besides these enterprises, the company operated a large general 
store and a six-acre meadow scientifically managed to provide forage 
for the animals used in the plant. The company owned 1,600 acres 
of land, 250 under cultivation. Goods were shipped to New York, 
Philadelphia, Baltimore, Chicago, Wilmington, Atlanta, Charleston, 
Columbia, and many points in the two Carolinas. So successful had 
been the operation of this mill that it had not only earned enough 
to cover the purchase price, but had paid fair dividends every year 
since the war. At this time Bivingsville was the show place of the 
county. 

Other In 1869 the Spartan boasted that Spartanburg “ex- 

Enterprises hibited nothing which failed to secure a premium” 
at the State Agricultural Fair. Two noteworthy premiums were 
won by Fowler, Foster and Company—$10 for the best phaeton, 
and $8 for the best two-horse wagon. There were numerous suc¬ 
cessful flour mills in the District; and corn and grist mills were 
almost innumerable. 

Captain H. C. Robertson and his sons opened a gold mine in 
the North Pacolet section, about 1867, which caused some excite¬ 
ment. Several lots of ore in paying quantities were obtained. Pic- 


Rails and Expansion 


173 


nics were held to enable sight-seers to inspect the mine, and it had 
many visitors. But work on it was soon abandoned. 

The iron works were almost abandoned during this period, be¬ 
cause their machinery was worn, their supply of fuel exhausted, 
their markets gone, and new competition, which they could not meet, 
had arisen in the West Virginia and Pennsylvania iron-producing 
areas. Limestone was still quarried in the vicinity of Limestone 
Springs. 

Losses from During its entire existence, the progress of the 

Emigration District was retarded by losses of population. The 

chief cause of emigration before the war was the lure of cheap and 
desirable lands in the Southwest; letters from former Spartans who 
settled in Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and Texas, appeared fre¬ 
quently in the Spartan and the Express in the years before the war. 
The census report for 1860 showed 41 per cent of the natives of 
South Carolina living in other States; and in 1870, 35 per cent had 
left their native State. Many Spartans had gone to Kansas in the 
fifties. 

After the war, many of the freedmen sought new homes. Some 
were lured away by fantastic schemes. For example, a group of 
fifty or more from the southern part of the county who called them¬ 
selves “Zion Travelers” sold all their possessions, July 1873, and 
set forth up the Buncombe Road to a “Promised Land,” described 
to them by a preacher of their race as distant a hundred and sixty 
miles. The ship “Azor” may have carried a few Spartanburg Negroes 
to Liberia. 

Immigration Vigorous efforts were undertaken to induce immi- 
Aid Societies gration. Spartanburg, Limestone Springs, Wellford, 
all formed Immigration Aid Societies between 1873 and 1876. An 
Immigration Office was opened in Spartanburg, conducted by T. H. 
Bomar. On one occasion, in 1874, about fifty Italians were placed 
in this county by this agency. Employers were required to advance 
a contingent fee of $10, and to promise board and a monthly wage 
of $10 for a year. To insure against the immigrants’ becoming 
lonely and discontented, a rule was made that three or more must be 
employed in a community. Efforts to induce English-speaking set¬ 
tlers to come in met with little success because of the race problem. 
A publication called the Southern Herald, issued from Gaffney City, 
was the organ of “Gaines’ Southern Immigration Agency.” This 


174 


A History of Spartanburg County 


was an organization with headquarters in New York City, which 
had as its announced purpose the promotion of immigration into 
the Piedmont. 

The population of the District in 1850 was 26,400; in 1860, 
26,919; in 1870, 25,784. This decade from 1860 to 1870 was the 
only one in its entire history when the population of Spartanburg 
showed an actual decrease. 


CHAPTER SEVENTEEN 


Social Life During Reconstruction 


Reaction The end of the war brought relief from suspense. In the 
from War j G y having the soldiers at home people gave them¬ 
selves over to pleasures. Within a year new churches, Masonic lodge 
buildings, tournaments, concerts and commencements, and series of 
instructive lectures were being reported in the Spartan, showing 
that, in the main, during the years following the war, life went on 
almost normally in the old Spartan'District, even with the alarming 
new “Militia Act,” the Reconstruction program, and the world turned 
upside down politically. People had weddings and sent the editor 
wedding cake. Ladies made lovely gardens and sent the editor sam¬ 
ples of roses, strawberries, first fruits and vegetables—receiving in 
return gallant compliments in the Spartan. The circus came and 
went. The Pioneer Club and the Wofford Star Club played exhibition 
baseball on Kirby Hill, in the spring. 


Social The Masons and the Independent Order of Odd Fel- 

Diversions lows were leaders in promoting social and civic activity. 
St. John’s Day, December 27, 1866, was made the occasion of an 
old-time Masonic celebration at Glenn Springs. The day was given 
over to speech-making, installations, and an “elegant dinner,” and 
the night to “dancing in the large hall.” At the end of the year, the 
Spartan commented cheerfully on the increased life and animation in 
Spartanburg. Money was more plentiful. Merchants were more 
active. More country people were seen on the streets, and there was 
more bartering. 

Railroad excursions, “hot suppers,” May Day picnics, baseball 
games, strawberry and ice cream festivals served as meeting places 
for beaux and belles, and as financial bonanzas for the sewing so¬ 
cieties of the churches. Spartanburg took on the airs of a city by 
instituting an “omnibus line” with a round-trip fare of twenty cents, 
which connected the town with Garrett Springs—earlier known as 
Thomson’s Spring, and later renamed Rock Cliff—one and one-half 
miles from town. The omnibus ran up North Church, past Wofford 
College, to a junction with Rutherford (now Magnolia) Street, 
turned down it, passed the Magnolia Street cemetery, the Public 
Square, and ran along East Main and the old Cowpens Battle- 

175 


176 


A History of Spartanburg County 


ground road, to the spring. At the spring were a billiard room, a 
bathing-room, walks, seats, a reservoir with a fountain, and an ice 
cream saloon. On special occasions the Spartanburg Silver Cornet 
Band gave concerts here. 

At the Hotels and The Walker House and the Palmetto House were 
Mineral Springs both dosed in 1865, but reopened in 1866; and, 
although very shabby, they were well patronized. William P. Irwin 
kept the Palmetto House, and his personality created about him an 
atmosphere of culture and distinction to which the Spartan editor 
frequently referred with pride. The political corruption, the business 
unrest, the Ku Klux disturbances, all failed to check the search for 
recreation. This period was marked by the increased vogue of min¬ 
eral springs, especially Glenn and Cherokee Springs. 

Tournaments Tournaments replaced the old-time regimental musters 
very acceptably. An especially brilliant tournament was held at 
Glenn Springs, May 7, 1868. Each knight paid a registration fee 
and appeared “on the green in front of the hotel” at nine o’clock in 
the morning, suitably costumed and mounted, and provided with a 
lance nine feet long. The track was one hundred and fifty yards long; 
and three rings, each two and a half inches in diameter, were sus¬ 
pended over it at forty-foot intervals. The riders “tilted” for these 
rings, coursing rapidly along the track, nine seconds being the time 
limit. Four prizes were awarded. The first, a handsome wreath, 
carried with it the privilege of choosing and crowning the Queen of 
Love and Beauty. Three maids of honor were selected by the next 
three best riders, who received as prizes a fine bridle, a mounted riding 
whip, and a pair of fine steel spurs. The list of judges and marshals 
included former governors, judges, and other stately gentlemen, thej 
cream of the old regime. A sumptuous dinner was followed by a 
brief rest period. Then, in the evening, in the “large hall” of the 
hotel, the Queen’s Coronation Ball was danced—a glamorous costume 
affair. 

Cross Anchor was the scene of a brilliant tournament and costume 
ball on Christmas Eve of the year 1869. Participating knights and 
ladies attended from Union, Laurens, Clinton, Enoree, Minterville, 
Cross Keys, Tylersville, and possibly other communities. Among 
the merrymakers there were, no doubt, ladies who had sewed regalia 
for the members of the mystic brotherhood, and knights who had 



At Airline Junction, September 7, 1874 



The Merchants’ Hotel, Built in 1880 















Social Life During Reconstruction 


177 


ridden hooded and shrouded, under cover of darkness, to save their 
imperiled social order. Yet they could dance and be merry. 

State Press The State Press Association was organized in Charles- 
Association ton j n t h e S p r j n g 0 f 1875, anc j the town of Spartanburg 
entertained its second convention, May 10, 1876. The meetings were 
held in the offices of the Herald, established in 1875 with T. Stobo 
Farrow as editor. The feature of the occasion was an excursion to 
Butt Mountain Gap to inspect the progress of the Spartanburg- 
Asheville Railroad. Banquets were spread at the Palmetto House 
and the Piedmont House, and the public address was delivered in 
the courthouse by the distinguished editor of the News and Courier, 
Captain F. W. Dawson. All of the visiting editors went home and 
wrote flattering pieces about Spartanburg for their papers. 

Religious Special exercises were held in connection with the fif- 
Celebrations anniversary of Cannon’s Camp Ground, beginning 

Friday, September 24, 1875, and continuing through the following 
Tuesday. Several ministers participated in the exercises, besides 
Mr. Mood, presiding elder, and Mr. Porter, preacher on the Cherokee 
Circuit. Dr. James H. Carlisle, president of Wofford College, made 
the outstanding address on Sunday afternoon, when between two and 
three thousand people gathered in the Camp. 

In 1861, with the news of war in the air, the Nazareth Church 
congregation planned and carried through successfully the “Centennial 
Celebration of the First Settlement on the Tygers.” In 1872, when 
again the county was filled with tumult and unrest, they celebrated— 
even more elaborately—the centennial of the formal organization of 
Nazareth Church. The distinguished New Orleans Presbyterian 
preacher, Dr. Benjamin M. Palmer, made the oration on June 15, 
1872. Dr. R. H. Reid read a historical sketch of the church. Sons 
and daughters of the church and of the seven churches calling Naza¬ 
reth mother, participated in the celebration. The church had been 
repaired and adorned for the occasion, and surrounded with awnings 
and improvised seats to accommodate in comfort the large attendance 
expected. 

The Grange The Grange, officially “Patrons of Husbandry,” played 
an important part in organizing social life in farming communities 
during the decade of the seventies. Its objectives were to promote 
culture and improve farming methods, and to provide for a sys- 


178 


A History of Spartanburg County 


tematic exchange of ideas among farm families. It had also a policy 
of cooperative buying and selling of farming implements and supplies. 
The programs at regular Grange meetings often included debates 
on such subjects as “The No Fence Law,” or “The Merits of Com¬ 
mercial Fertilizers,” or “Immigration as a Solution of the Labor 
Problem.” The Grange also secured visiting speakers of distinction, 
and held public meetings. Social features, with entertainment and 
refreshments, characterized most of the Grange meetings. An im¬ 
portant aspect of the Grange movement was the inclusion of women 
in the membership. 

Twentieth Com- During this entire period Wofford College held its 
mencement at 0 wn j n S pjt e Q f t h e f ac t th e war had swept away 
Wofford College a p q £ en( Jowment. In 1872 a “Ladies’ Bazaar,” 
conducted for the purpose of repairing the steps, yielded $800. Wof¬ 
ford’s sophomore exhibitions and commencements and public lec¬ 
tures offered from time to time provided social and intellectual stim¬ 
ulus for the entire community and even the county. In July, 1874, 
an imposing array of dignitaries appeared on the twentieth com¬ 
mencement program; and not only the Palmetto House and the Pied¬ 
mont House, but all the available private homes of the village were 
taxed to entertain the throng of visitors. The novelty of being able 
to make the trip by rail—at special rates, too—and the fact that the 
Spartanburg Dancing Club seized the occasion for its initial “Ball,” no 
doubt swelled the attendance. Possibly some visitors were drawn 
by the Latin and Greek orations which continued, in the seventies, to 
have their place in every Wofford commencement program. 

Last Days of the Spartanburg Female College, reopened in 1866 and 
Female College making a valiant but vain struggle for continued 
existence, was characterized in 1868 by the Spartan as the “oldest 
female college now in operation in the State.” Early in 1870 the Rev¬ 
erend Dr. S. B. Jones and the Reverend James F. Smith bought from 
the referees in bankruptcy “the Spartanburg Female College free of 
encumbrances of debt.” Smith soon sold his interest to the Reverend 
Samuel Lander, who within a very short period sold it in turn to 
Jones. Lander himself removed to Williamston, where he founded 
a female college which later received his name. Doctor Jones held 
his last commencement exercises the week of November 5, 1872, at 
which time the announcement was made that the faculty and most 
of the students would go with him to Columbia Female College, of 


Social Life During Reconstruction 


179 


which he had accepted the presidency, and which would open January 
1, 1873. 


Educational In August 1872, the Female College property was again 
Venture* sold—thi S time to the Reverend R. C. Oliver, to be 

used for the Carolina Orphans’ Home. This institution started off 
well. By fall Oliver was publishing The Orphans Friend, a “family 
newspaper designed primarily to teach the children printing.” In 
1873 the buildings of the orphanage were sold to Wofford College 
for use as a “Fitting School.” The paper was sold, in 1875, to the 
founders of the Spartanburg Herald. 

The Theological Seminary, with a faculty of three, was located 
here in October 1866, by the Diocesan Convention of the Protestant 
Episcopal Church, but in less than three years was removed to 
Sewanee, Tennessee. In January 1873, Dr. John D. McCollough 
opened St. John’s Hall, a boarding school for girls. The grounds 
of the Seminary reverted thus to the use for which they were first 
acquired by McCollough twenty years earlier. 


Private Throughout the war period and afterwards excellent private 
School* sc hools were maintained. Among the teachers were Mrs. 
Sarah L. Butler, the Misses Harlow, Mrs. M. C. Massie, Mrs. Baker, 
Miss Emily K. Lee, Miss Perry, Miss W. H. Girardeau, the Misses 
Gamewell, Mrs. J. W. Webber, Misses Lomax and Shipp, W. L. 
Johnson, and J. S. Henderson. 

Vicissitude* of the In 1873 the State Superintendent of Education, 
School for the Deaf j JiHson, ordered that no distinction based 
and the Blind on race was to ^ ma( J e am0 ng the pupils of the 

School for the Deaf and the Blind at Cedar Spring, but that “whites 
and blacks should sleep in the same beds, eat at the same tables, and 
be taught in the same classes.” The faculty and staff resigned, and 
in the impossibility of replacing them Jillson officially closed the 
school, and it was not reopened until 1876. Some of the teachers 
and pupils continued ther work together privately during that period. 
Previously the school had been twice closed and reopened because of 
war conditions and lack of appropriations. 

The Reidville The Reidville Schools, founded just before the war, 
Schools survived and rallied surprisingly from the ordeal. The 

Reverend Dr. R. H. Reid, their founder, in an address at Bullock’s 
Creek in 1872, said of them: 


180 


A History of Spartanburg County 


The institutions received a baptism of blood at their birth. 
Three of their first teachers were soon lost in the war; two were 
killed in battle, and one died of disease. We have had pupils from 
Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, North Carolina, and Vir¬ 
ginia, as well as many from the lower counties of our own State. 
They have done noble work in the past. They are today well 
officered with a full corps of teachers. One hundred and forty-five 
pupils were enrolled during the last scholastic year. They were 
founded by farmers and have been chiefly sustained by them. They 
were founded in faith and prayer, and I have an abiding faith 
in their continued prosperity. 

His faith was justified. His schools survived until they evolved in 
the nineties into public schools. 

Changes in the The public school system was elsewhere to absorb 
Limestone Springs t hg ^ aca demies and private schools. In time 
the two institutions at Limestone Springs lan¬ 
guished. The Curtis property was sold in 1871, and Doctor Curtis 
died in 1873, but Charles Petty continued a school there very suc¬ 
cessfully for a number of years. Finally, in 1880, the Limestone 
Springs property, mortgaged to Peter Cooper of New York, was given 
by him and Thomas and M. M. Bomar—who were joint owners with 
him—to the Spartanburg Baptist Association; and the institution, 
which had, since 1845, been the outstanding girls’ school of upper 
South Carolina, took on new life, as the Cooper-Limestone Institute. 


R. H. Reid and The public school system as it is organized today 
the Public School was t h e outgrowth of the despised Constitution of 
System 1868, and in its beginnings encountered resist¬ 

ance because of this association with the “Nigger Convention.” Very 
fortunately for the county, its first commissioner of education, R. H. 
Reid of Reidville, was a gentleman and a scholar and an experienced 
educator. The constructive part he played in the discharge of his 
duties was of a quality to command honor to his memory. 

In undertaking the office of the Commissioner of Education, Reid 
entered on a delicate task. His attitude to it and aptitude for it were 
soon displayed. The first County Teachers’ Convention in South 
Carolina was organized by him at Nazareth Church, August 5, 1870. 
At the second County Teachers’ Convention, held in New Prospect, 
August 29, 1871, Reid made a carefully organized address which in 
very sane and practical language explained the law and machinery 
of the new system. He analyzed the obstacles to its successful initia- 


Social Life: During Reconstruction 


181 


tion, and thought no one should be surprised that seven or eight dis¬ 
tricts had refused to vote the supplementary tax required for its local 
operation. The obstacles he pointed out were: first, the novelty of 
the scheme in this section; second, the prejudice growing out of its 
Yankee origin; third, the impossibility of finding for the Negroes 
teachers of their race capable of securing even a third grade certificate; 
fourth, the prejudice against white teachers for Negroes; fifth, the 
general contempt for women teachers. This last attitude he treated 
with gentle derision. In regard to the fourth, he felt that Christians 
should welcome the opportunity to educate the Negro. 

Musical “Singing Billy” Walker, A. S. H.—Author of Southern 
Interests Harmony —exercised a marked influence on the cultural 
life of Spartanburg—direct and indirect. He was especially noted 
for the excellence of his private library, and his familiarity with lit¬ 
erature. “Singing Billy” bargained with Northern publishers to give 
him in exchange for copies of his songbooks, an assortment of books 
with which he stocked the book store he maintained for a time in 
Spartanburg. He died in 1875, but even before his death the music 
teachers of the female colleges and girls’ schools had become leaders 
in the musical activity which was always characteristic of Spartan¬ 
burg society. 

Authorship Mrs. E. L. Herndon produced, in May 1873, an original 
tragi-comedy play entitled Bluebeard, which had three performances 
and was highly complimented in the paper. Original poems appeared 
in the Spartan by “Coralie Clyde of Enoree Vale” and “Harry Hope¬ 
ful of the Brick House” and other amateur writers. B. F. Perry, 
during the seventies, contributed a series of Revolutionary Incidents, 
the materials for which he had secured chiefly by interviewing old 
citizens on his rounds as a lawyer. One feature of the Spartan and 
the Herald during the seventies was the appearance in them of several 
romances—written, of course, under pen-names—by some of the 
county’s “gifted ladies.” While not of intrinsic literary value, one 
or two of these have interest because they describe contemporary 
scenes and customs. One story, The Fortunes of Magdalene and 
Miriam Walton, began in the Spartan, January 21, 1874, and con¬ 
tinued through nineteen chapters, closing in the issue of April 26, in 
a thoroughly conventional manner. Its author, “Lila Moore,” had her 
characters attend school at “Good Spring,” go to Greenville for “race 
week,” attend a “race ball,” and stay at “the hotel.” An editorial com- 


182 


A History of Spartanburg County 


ment said that this story was “a first effort” and was “written by one 
of the most gifted ladies in our town,” and that the papers containing 
it had been in demand. 

Certainly, in art, music, letters, social intercourse, the people of 
Spartanburg County found solace and enrichment of life during the 
decade after the war closed. Their social and spiritual growth kept 
even pace with their phenomenal economic and industrial expansion. 


CHAPTER EIGHTEEN 

Plows and Progress 


Changed Conditions During the years following Reconstruction, 
for Farmers three things profoundly influenced the lives and 

activities of Spartanburg farmers—the railroads, the introduction of 
commercial fertilizers, and those organizations which stimulated in 
farmers a class consciousness. The emancipation of their slaves 
was of less moment to them than were those three developments, 
for in Spartanburg County white labor had always been usual on 
the farms. The Negroes in 1860 constituted only 34 per cent of 
the total population, and there were few if any farms in the county 
which had at any time depended exclusively on slave labor. 


Effects of Com- The use of commercial fertilizers in Spartan- 

mercial Fertilizers burg began about 1874. Different men have 

claimed the honor of introducing their use. The educational pro¬ 
gram of the Grange was influential in this as in many phases of 
farm experimentation. When commercial fertilizers made it pos¬ 
sible for Up-Countiy farmers to produce cotton in competition with 
the old cotton-producing counties, a revolution in farming methods 
set in. The farmers began to buy hay, bacon, even occasionally corn, 
shipped over the railroads from points where it could be procured 
at lower prices than prevailed at home. These farmers concentrated 
on cotton—a “money crop.” Cotton truly became King, when land 
was rented for so many bales of cotton, and a man's wealth was 
estimated by the number of bales he produced. 

New methods of farm finance grew out of this changed view¬ 
point. The merchants “carried” the farmers—that is, they extended 
credit for the year’s supplies, depending for their pay on the sale 
of the cotton crop. In Spartanburg County, many farmers had 
already pledged from one-third to three-fourths of their cotton be¬ 
fore it was even planted. Too often the merchants seemed to take 
advantage of the farmers’ necessity, forcing them to take all the risk 
of bad weather conditions and short crops. The result was class 
antagonism. 


Hammond’s Handbook Robert Mills, in 1825, in his Statistics, pro- 

Compared with vided the first detailed account of Spartan- 

Mills’ Statistics burg on record In 1880 a similar survey 

was made by Harry Hammond, a special agent of the United 

183 


184 


A History or Spartanburg County 


States Department of Agriculture. This report, with supplementary 
details, was the basis of the 1883 Report of the South Carolina De¬ 
partment of Agriculture, which is familiarly referred to as “Ham¬ 
mond’s Handbook.” Hammond’s report gave the area of the county 
as 950 square miles, the number of acres under cultivation as 148,741. 
Spartanburg ranked seventh among the thirty-three counties in 
acreage and twelfth in production of cotton, third in corn and wheat; 
and it produced respectable quantities of oats and sweet potatoes. 
Some experimentation in rice culture was recorded—five acres with 
a production of 3,356 pounds. In 1880 less than ten per cent of 
the farm lands were planted in cotton. At this time Spartanburg 
was fourth in total population, second in white population, second in 
wealth, and first in the total value of country real estate among all 
the counties. 

Spartanburg Hammond described in detail farming conditions 

Farming in 1880 an d me thods in the county in 1880, naming S. C. 
Means as his informant from this county. The average size of 
farms ranged from two hundred to five hundred acres, and three- 
fourths of the farmers used “mixed husbandry,” only a minority 
buying shipped supplies of bacon, corn, and hay. One-horse plowing 
was usual, two-horse plows being used occasionally. Fallow lands 
were left uncultivated for eight or ten years, and then were often 
replanted to advantage. No sub-soiling was practiced, nor any 
systematic rotation of crops. “The washing of hill-sides does not 
amount to a serious evil, and it is reported as easily prevented and 
effectually checked by hill-side ditching when necessary,” ran one 
sentence in this report. 

Two-thirds of the field labor was performed by whites: “Even 
where the colored population largely preponderates a considerable 
amount of it is done by whites, not infrequently a much larger pro¬ 
portion than one would infer from the ratio between the races,” the 
report ran. The prevailing wages of field labor was $8 by the 
month, $100 by the year; and in all cases the laborer was furnished 
with shelter, rations, and firewood, and almost invariably with a 
garden, and the privilege of raising poultry and some stock—a cow 
or a hog. Great care and consideration were shown labor. Share¬ 
croppers got one-third to one-half, or more if they owned the tools 
they used. It was easy to rent land, but not much of it was for 
sale. The general valuation was $10 per acre. 


Plows and Progress 


185 


A good deal of commercial fertilizer was used, and stable manure 
was always used; but the basic fertilizer in 1880 was cottonseed, 
which had a market value of ten to fifteen cents a bushel, and was 
broadcast “green” on the fields for wheat and other small grain, and 
plowed under. For corn it was “killed” with heat and applied in 
each hill. It was composted with stable manure and acid phosphate— 
with sometimes litter and lime added—for cottonfields. Some cot¬ 
tonseed was fed to the stock. The best was saved for planting. In 
the nineties oil mills were to provide a market for cottonseed; but 
in 1880 Charleston had the only such mill in the State. Spartanburg 
in 1880 used more commercial fertilizer than any other Up-Country 
county, averaging $3.33 outlay per acre for it. Abbeville, with an 
average of 92 cents, used least, of the upper counties. The chief ad¬ 
vantage of commercial fertilizer was that its use hastened maturity 
of cotton—an important consideration in the Piedmont climate, since 
cotton requires a long growing season. Green manuring—pea vines 
plowed under—was being experimented with. 

Farm Hammond’s comments on the methods of farm financ- 

Fmanong j n g s i 10W the existence of a dangerous situation: 

Purchasing supplies on a credit prevails to a considerable ex¬ 
tent, especially among the small farmers. The exact rate at 
which these advances are made cannot be given, as it is not 
charged as interest, but is included in an increased price asked 
for supplies purchased on a credit. It varies from 20 to 100 
per cent above the market value of the goods, according to the 
amount of competition among the storekeepers, who here, as 
elsewhere in the state, are by far the most prosperous class of 
the community, in proportion to the skill and capital employed. 

The better class of farmers do not approve of this credit 
system. It furnishes facilities to small farmers, encouraging 
them to undertake operations they cannot make remunerative to 
themselves; it reduces the number of laborers, and precludes high 
culture. The rental of land is thus increased, and land which 
could not be sold for $10 may be rented for $5. . . 

The records of the courts show that the number of liens on 
the growing crops is greatly on the increase, the rate of increase 
being 23 per cent per annum for the last two years. 

.... They are mostly taken from the smaller farmers, 
usually renters, for advances made by the landlord, or more fre¬ 
quently by the store-keeper. 


186 


A History of Spartanburg County 


Rise of the Town This system of farm financing was the basis 

Merchant Class on which a new class rose to leadership in 

South Carolina — the town merchants, who 
often made small fortunes out of their profits, and who often in¬ 
vested their gains in agricultural lands, or came by foreclosure into 
possession of lands which they rented to tenants or share-croppers. 
Often one-time owners became embittered tenants. The farmer was 
too often out of money, and forced to live on credit most of the 
year, while towns-people drew salaries and wages, and usually had 
money in their pockets, even though they might have none in the 
banks and quite probably owned no land or real estate. The farm¬ 
er’s family, limited to use of home-made products, resented the ap¬ 
parent luxury of the non-property-owning town family. The town 
family was prone to view with condescension a class deprived of 
comforts and pleasures which had become to it essentials. This 
feeling did not apply to the prosperous farmer—who in Spartanburg 
County was also usually a stockholder in cotton mills and railroads, 
and a power in county politics. 

Class Spartanburg has had from its very beginning a truly 

Feelmg democratic spirit, and the history of its influential fam¬ 

ilies is a history of men and women who themselves labored with 
their hands as readily as they directed the labor of others—whether 
in stores, mills, and offices, or in homes and on farms. However, 
out of the conditions described, class feeling did rise among the 
farmers, and by 1885 their growing discontent with their lot became 
a matter of general concern, as is indicated by a short editorial in 
the Carolina Spartan entitled, “Does Farming Pay?” Of course it 
pays, was Petty’s thesis: “If farm operations should stop for one 
year, banks, factories, stores and professions would all go under. 
The question is not whether it pays or not, but how to get larger re¬ 
turns for labor. . . . Farming does pay even here on the old red hills 
of Spartanburg. It keeps alive more than 40,000 people, and builds 
fine houses, and pays interest on railroad debts, and keeps up the 
state government, and is the grand motive power which keeps all 
the other wheels in motion.” 

Farming Outlook The Charleston News and Courier, during 1885, 
In 1885 published a series of “full reports as to the 

outlook of the farmers in 1885,” excerpts from which the Spartan 


Plows and Progress 


187 


published, with editorial comment, January 28, 1885. One article 
entitled “Farmers to the Front,” ran, in part, as follows: 

In Spartanburg there are special marks of growth and im¬ 
provement. The white farmers live better than formerly, dress 
better, and have more comfortable houses. This is a good sign. 
. . . The people are no longer satisfied with bare existence—bare 
eating and drinking . . . our farmers are learning to be more 
economical. Those that are accumulating a little, year by year, 
go in debt much more cautiously than they did a few years ago. 
They are also beginning to learn the value of a dollar, and many 
of them are now laying in their supplies for the year, while bacon, 
flour, and sugar are cheap. The poor unfortunate tenants, that 
" live from hand to mouth, and to whom good and bad crop years 
are about the same, are in their usual condition. They have 
nothing, but they pull through in some way. Our county has 
some of this class, and they will always be with us, though the 
years should be as plentiful as the seven fruitful years of Egyptian 
history. . . . 

The hireling class is very limited. There are two reasons 
for this: In the first place, the negro thinks it looks a little like 
slavery to hire out to a man for a year. It makes him feel as 
though he belonged to his employer. He likes to have Saturday 
evening to himself, and then his church and societies make de¬ 
mands on him, and he: does not feel as if he is free unless he 
can go and come when he pleases. The white boys generally 
work with their parents until they are able to set up for them¬ 
selves ; consequently there is little hiring amongst them. The 
other cause is that farmers, as a general thing, do not have ready 
money to pay hired hands at the end of each month, and it is 
impossible for them to work unless they are paid. A better 
class of employers, with ready money and provisions at cash prices 
and prompt settlement at the end of each month, would soon 
evolve a set of first-class hirelings. This would lead to a better 
system of farming, where all the operations would be under one 
head, and where the labor could be concentrated and rendered 
doubly effective. 

Our people are using better implements than they did in 
former days. They are buying harrows, cultivators, seed planters, 
reapers, mowers, and improved ploughs. The change from the 
old to the new is slow, but it is taking place all over the county. 
Our people are building better houses and buying better furni¬ 
ture. There are signs of comfort, and even of refinement, in 
many of the humble homes of our people. Of course there are 
many houses with unadorned walls, scanty furniture and bare 
rooms, but the spirit of progress is abroad in our county, and 
the paint brush is making its way, and flowers find a place in the 


188 


A History or Spartanburg County 


front yard and papers are found on the centre table. The culti¬ 
vation of small grain and orchard fruits is on the increase. 

There is also a social uplifting among our people. Many 
of the ladies, wives, and daughters of our farmers, dress with 
taste and style, and they are striving to be somebody. General 
intelligence is also increasing, and many of the boys and girls in 
our country homes are as well informed as those who live in the 
cities and towns, and the marks of good breeding are as apparent 
in the highways and hedges as on the street corners. . . . Many 
of them are dignifying their occupation and making farming as 
honorable as the trades and professions. . . . 

The Grange and In 1875 there were in South Carolina 342 

the Experimental Granges with more than 10,000 members. The 
Station Grange joined hands with the State Agricul¬ 

tural and Mechanical Society in 1877 in striving to carry out a pro¬ 
gram of State control of the railroads and the building up of an 
adequate department of agriculture in the State government. 

At a joint meeting of the representatives of these two organiza¬ 
tions, in Bennettsville, August 10, 1885, B. R. Tillman made a speech 
and offered resolutions that were to become history. He demanded 
the establishment of experimental farms, the reorganization of the 
State Board of Agriculture, the establishment of farmers’ institutes, 
and the making over of South Carolina College, with the inclusion 
of more farmers on its board. He characterized the Board of 
Agriculture that had been created as merely “a sop to Cerberus, a 
bribe to the farmers in the legislature.” He cited the Federal 
Statute of 1862 which provided an appropriation of the proceeeds 
from the Western lands “in order to promote the liberal and prac¬ 
tical education of the industrial classes.” An immediate outcome 
was the establishment by the Assembly of experimental stations, one 
of which was located at Spartanburg. 


Plans for an Inter- Meanwhile, at the National Grange meeting in 
State Farmers’ Washington in 1885, J. N. Lipscomb of South 

Encampment Carolina had proposed to representatives from 

the adjoining States of Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, and 
Tennessee, that the five States organize an Inter-State Farmers’ En¬ 
campment modeled on a famous one held annually at Williams’ 
Grove, Pennsylvania. The plan was seconded warmly by all these 
States. Spartanburg was the place selected for the encampment, 
and the first meeting was scheduled for the week of August 12, 1887. 


Plows and Progress 


189 


While plans were going forward for the farmers’ encampment 
and a tract of thirty acres was acquired for it, Spartanburg was 
selected in July as the site for the “Up-Country Experimental Sta¬ 
tion” demanded by B. R. Tillman. The people of Spartanburg 
gave $2,000 and three hundred acres of land to secure it. Some of 
this land adjoined that set apart for the “Inter-State Farmers’ En¬ 
campment,” and the experimental station was placed under the direc¬ 
tion of John W. Wofford, at the time Master of the State Grange. 

B. R. Tillman was quoted by the News and Courier, August 6, 
1887, as pronouncing the Inter-State Farmers’ Encampment “a ren¬ 
dezvous of all men who shut their eyes to the present and worship 
the past.” He further characterized it as a scheme by which “pleas¬ 
ure-seekers are enticed from their homes by a fanfaronade;” and 
its promoters—“Bourbons, doctors, lawyers, politicians”—he said 
lacked the intelligence to manage a farmers’ fair. Tillman declined 
an invitation to attend this 1887 Encampment. One of its pro¬ 
moters, Colonel T. J. Moore, who had distinguished himself by his 
intelligent experimentation in the cultivation of rice and tobacco, in 
stock-breeding, and in the principles of diversified agriculture, was 
derisively dubbed by Tillman “the Bee-keeper.” 


The First Inter- This first Inter-State Farmers’ Encampment 

State Farmers’ was, according to the Carolina Spartan, non- 

Encampment sectional and non-political; and, in spite of 

many handicaps, it was held a success by its promoters. Local poli¬ 
tics in North Carolina and Georgia engrossed the farmers of those 
States, so that fewer of them participated than was expected. Heavy 
rains hindered preparations, spoiled prospective exhibits, and kept 
away many who had planned to attend. There had not been time 
to get the experimental farm in operation. However, at the ap¬ 
pointed hour, 11 a. m. August 2, the band began to play, the horn 
was sounded, and exercises began as scheduled. The crowd was 
small. The second day was bright, and it was estimated that 6,(XX) 
people were on the grounds before noon. Charleston and the Low 
Country were well represented. Three hundred wagons were said 
to be on the grounds from Rutherford County, North Carolina. 
Spartans rejoiced at the sight of so many strange faces. There were 
orations, essays, baseball games, concerts, discussions. Wagons were 
“rattling in all day from North Carolina.” The Charleston News 
and Courier, Augusta Chronicle, Columbia Register, Laurensville 


190 


A History of Spartanburg County 


Herald „ Greenville Baptist Courier, Columbia Record, all had repre¬ 
sentatives in attendance, and all of them wrote favorable reports, 
making friendly excuses for inadequate preparations and other de¬ 
ficiencies. 


The Second Inter- J n 1888 things went much better. The week 
State Farmers’ from August 6 through August 11 was de- 

Encampment voted to the Encampment. The experimental 

farm was ready for exhibition. A day was set apart for the annual 
meeting of the Agricultural and Mechanical Society; two days were 
devoted to a Farmers’ Institute; one day was given to the State 
Grange meeting; the members of the Farmers’ Alliance were es¬ 
pecially invited to participate; three new buildings had been added 
to the big pavilion—a “State Exhibit Building.” a “Machinery Hall,” 
and a “Reception Hall.” There were pens for poultry and cattle. 
Entertainment features included two lectures by Sam Jones, two 
cantatas by the Spartanburg Musical Association, a grand ball, a 
balloon ascension, baseball games every afternoon, and brass bands. 
The railroad operated trains between the city and the encampment 
every half-hour, and sold tickets at special rates. The hotels and 
livery stables also offered special rates. This encampment had an 
estimated attendance of 20,000. 


The Last Charles Petty pointed out, April 18, 1888, that one 

Encampment 0 f consequences of the Clemson bequest would 
be the end of the Agricultural Encampment and the Experimental 
Farm in Spartanburg County. He was right; the encampment of 
1889 was the last held. Thirty years later the Spartanburg Herald 
of May 11, 1919, printed entertaining reminiscences of it by J. H. 
ClafTy, of Orangeburg, president of the State Farmers’ Union. He 
referred to it as having been held “before Ben Tillman’s reform 
movement had taken definite shape,” and described the encamp¬ 
ment as “the occasion of a great rally of the farmers of the state.” 
“Ben Tillman, farmer Ben, made a speech,” Claffy recalled, “one 
of his first attempts to dynamite the air with his high explosive 
thoughts.” Thirty or more military companies—each with its own 
distinctive uniforms — held a military encampment on the same 
grounds; and their parades, in spite of clumsy ignorance of ma¬ 
noeuvres displayed, were highly spectacular. One full evening was 
given to a display of fireworks. The attendance was estimated at 


Plows and Progress 


191 


25,000 people, and numerous covered wagons were on the grounds, 
filled with apples, tobacco, and “com likker.” 

Fairfield Park and In April 1890 the Encampment ground was 
a County Fair sold t0 t h e c ity for $2,250—the sum required 

to clear up the obligations of the company 
which had sponsored it. The undertaking was pronounced “a good 
investment all round.” An article in the Spartan said, April 9, 1890: 

From that first encampment our city began to move forward. 
It advertised our advantages. We may not have annual en¬ 
campments, but the city will hold the ground as a public park. 

. Fairs, agricultural meetings, political meetings, religious services 
may all be held here. It will be a grand rallying place for the 
people of our County on extra occasions. The Encampment proj¬ 
ect was by no means a failure. 

This prediction was amply verified in subsequent history, for Fair- 
field Park, as the tract was named, was later the scene of many polit¬ 
ical rallies and military encampments, and in 1907 was leased to 
the County Fair Association. It has been the site of annual fairs 
ever since, except during the World War. 


CHAPTER NINETEEN 

The Tillman Era 


The Farmers’ The decline of the Grange before a new organization 
Alliance 0 f f armers had much to do with the abandonment of 

the Encampment. This new body was the Farmers’ Alliance, a 
national secret organization, membership in which was strictly lim¬ 
ited to rural dwellers—farmers, country preachers, country doctors, 
and rural teachers. Lawyers, bankers, and merchants were regarded 
by the Alliance with distrust, and two important points in its program 
were aimed at them: cooperative buying and the settlement of dis¬ 
putes by arbitration within the organization. 

The men who organized the Farmers’ Alliance in Spartanburg 
County laid stress on its freedom from political connections or labor 
union affiliations. They claimed that it was an improvement on the 
Grange in that it attempted no coercion of its members. “Its object 
is to improve the conditions of the farmers ... by our system of 
union and cooperation,” wrote J. W. Reid, first secretary of the 
Spartanburg County Alliance. This body was organized in the court¬ 
house, May 15, 1888, with nineteen sub-alliances, all organized 
within the preceding six weeks. The sub-alliances were located at 
Glenn Springs, Reidville, Becca, Wellford, Arlington, Holly Springs, 
Inman, Martinsville, Limestone, Cannon’s Camp Ground, Cowpens, 
Rich Hill, Macedonia, Cherokee Springs, Pacolet, Walnut Grove, 
Cavins, Philadelphia, Zion Hill. The county Alliance was organized 
with 424 members, and the first officers were: Dr. S. T. D. Lancaster, 
president; J. S. Hammond, vice president; J. W. Reid, secretary; 
James Wood, treasurer; R. V. Gowan, chaplain; W. McS. Zimmer¬ 
man, lecturer; A. C. Black, doorkeeper; Moses Foster, assistant door¬ 
keeper; E. S. Smith, sergeant at arms. At the State organization, 
in Florence, July 11, 1888, Chesterfield led the State with thirty sub¬ 
alliances ; and Spartanburg, with twenty-four sub-alliances, tied with 
Marion for second place. J. W. Reid was elected to the office of State 
Secretary, and Dr. S. T. D. Lancaster was placed on the State execu¬ 
tive committee. 

These alliances differed from the Grange in their change in em¬ 
phasis. Interest shifted noticeably from reports on experiments 
with rice, tobacco, and corn, or on methods of fertilizing, to discussions 
on how to force down prices on implements, seeds, and fertilizers. 
192 


The Tillman Era 


193 


The Farmers’ Alliance established itself in South Carolina without 
the aid of B. R. Tillman, who was organizing during the same period 
his “Farmers’ Movement”; but by 1890 the sub-alliances were adopt¬ 
ing resolutions endorsing Tillman for governor, and the anti-Tillman - 
ite farmers were withdrawing their membership from the Alliance. 

Editorial Policy of There was little spirit of class antagonism in Spar- 
Charles Petty tanburg County in 1888, and Charles Petty, whose 
editorial prestige was marked at this period, strove to check its early 
manifestations. For example, on May 2, he wrote in the Spartan: 
“It would show a better spirit on the part of certain people and news¬ 
papers in this State to rejoice over the prospects of a college for the 
farmers’ boys rather than by ridicule or apathy to oppose it.” When 
the Farmers’ Alliance appeared in Spartanburg County, Petty was 
cautious in his comments, remarking merely that, to raise the average 
of crop production in Spartanburg County and elsewhere, “intelli¬ 
gent and persistent labor must be used. The average cannot be raised 
by Tillman Conventions, Agricultural Colleges, or universal reso¬ 
lutions passed in farmers’ meetings.” So lightly did Petty estimate 
Tillman’s power that, August 1, 1888, he said: “Tillman has no fol¬ 
lowing and he is not a leader. . . . Tillman ought to quit.” On 
September 12, secure in the belief that Tillman’s retirement was final, 
he wrote: “The little tussle that Tillman has had with the adminis¬ 
tration has done no harm, and all good Democrats will stand shoulder 
to shoulder for the nomination, and the welfare of the State.” 

A Split in Petty attempted to minimize the split in the county 

County Politics Democratic ranks when, September 3, 1888, Dr. R. 

M. Smith threw down the gauntlet to what he called the “ring” and 
declared he had been “counted out,” and the senator’s office to which 
he had a right had been given to John W. Wofford two years before. 

N. F. Walker, former Chairman of the County Democratic Com¬ 
mittee, indignantly denied the implied charges. In October following, 
R. M. Smith shocked the Conservatives by winning an overwhelming 
victory at the polls. 

Two years later, Smith was a dominant figure in county politics, 
and an ardent supporter of the Shell plan to nominate Tillman for 
governor by a farmers’ caucus. A convention of farmers met in 
Columbia, March 27, 1890, on a call issued by G. W. Shell, President 
of the State Farmers’ Association, to consider their grievances and 
make plans for the next election campaign. It was generally under- 


194 


A History or Spartanburg County 


stood that the purpose of the meeting was to nominate a Tillman 
ticket and so organize forces as to ensure its being accepted at the 
regular Democratic Convention. This plan the Conservatives re¬ 
garded as high-handed. 

Spartanburg was the only county which sent a contested delega¬ 
tion to the Shell Convention, and the circumstances which attended 
the election of these delegations show the political situation in Spar¬ 
tanburg County in the spring of 1890. Upon receipt of the call to 
this meeting—popularly called the Shell Manifesto—J. W. Stribling, 
Chairman of the Democratic Executive Committee of Spartanburg 
County, complied with its request to call a mass meeting of farmers. 
At this meeting, called to order by Stribling, Dr. R. M. Smith stated 
the object of the meeting in a heated speech which dwelt on the in¬ 
justices suffered by farmers under the existing “ring rule.” George 
Dean was made president and R. A. Lancaster secretary of the meet¬ 
ing. Recognition was refused opponents of the proposed Shell plan, 
and a delegation was nominated to attend the Columbia meeting and 
support the Shell program. J. W. Stribling protested what he re¬ 
garded as “steam-roller” tactics and withdrew, calling a second 
meeting, which proceeded to elect an uninstructed delegation. In 
actuality it was understood to be opposed to the Shell plan. The 
Smith delegation included: E. C. Allen, N. Bennett, George Dean, 
John Dewberry, James W. Foster, J. B. O. Landrum, M. P. Patton, 
Elias S. Smith, Moses Wood, and W. C. S. Wood. Members of the 
Stribling delegation were: J. H. Anderson, Moses Foster, J. B. O. 
Landrum, J. M. Lanham, S. E. Mason, T. J. Moore, J. W. Stribling, 
J. J. Vernon, N. F. Walker, John W. Wofford. One name appeared 
on both tickets—that of J. B. O. Landrum. Several new names ap¬ 
peared on the final ticket. In an editorial prophecy which proved 
false, Petty wrote, March 5, 1890: “Mr. Shell may assume the right 
to call the Convention to order, and then, imitating the redoubtable 
Senator Smith, the little Reed of Spartanburg, rule out all delegations 
not in sympathy with the object of the meeting as expressed by his 
call . . . any ticket thus nominated would be foreordained to over¬ 
whelming defeat in the regular Democratic Convention.” 


Two Spartanburg Both the delegations presented themselves to 
Delegations at the credentials committee of the Shell Conven- 

Farmers Convention sea t e d J. W. Stribling and J. W. 

Wofford of the “Conservative” delegation from Spartanburg and 


The Tillman Era 


195 


eight from the other delegation as follows: James W. Foster, W. C. S. 
Wood, J. B. O. Landrum, M. P. Patton, H. L. Farley, R. M. Smith, 
L. E. Farley. The Convention proceeded to nominate a ticket for 
the fall election. The vote was close, and only sharp parliamentary 
practice enabled Shell to announce a majority in favor of making 
nominations. The Spartanburg delegation voted seven to three with 
the majority. An account of the proceedings appeared in the Spartan, 
April 9, 1890, with the editorial comment: 

The Spartanburg County Convention is a fair sample of the 
management of the whole affair. Good and true men were ar- 
• bitrarily ruled out of the convention. Three-fourths of the farm¬ 
ers of our county would not approve of the plans pursued by 
the chairman who presided that day. ... A man now living 
in Laurens County was wedged into the Spartanburg delegation. 
By such means was Tillman’s nomination carried. . . . Will 
the people, the farmers of the State, come up to his support? 
(If so) they will endorse questionable methods . . . will de¬ 
clare that the unfair and arbitrary ruling in the Spartanburg Con¬ 
vention was right. . . . The farmers are not ready for such 
trickery even in politics. They are fair and honest, and believe in 
“toting fair.” 

Anti-Tillman Within a month a convention of anti-Tillman farmers 
Sentiment held a mee ti n g in Columbia and issued a “Manifesto” 
protesting the Shell Convention as “factional, a spoilsman’s machine.” 
Twenty-one counties were represented at this meeting. Commenting 
on its proceedings, Petty wrote (April 30, 1890) : 

Of course no one claims that the Shell Convention generally 
represented the farmers. It was never intended to represent any¬ 
thing or anybody except Tillman. . . . You can get two meet¬ 
ings in every township, one of which will be for Tillman and the 
other against him. . . . The committee of twenty-one did noth¬ 
ing to crystallize the opposition to Tillman. Their platitudes will 
not draw the farmers. Tillman is a living, breathing, kicking 
reality that the farmers can see and touch and hear. They may 
not like him, for he is not the most admirable sort of man, but if 
nothing but platitudes and uncertainties are presented to them, 
they will rally round Tillman in the end and give him their sup¬ 
port. . . . 

Always Petty asserted his own allegiance to the Democratic party. 
Of Tillman’s campaign he remarked: “He is not our choice for gov¬ 
ernor. There are a hundred farmers in the State we would nomi- 


196 


A History or Spartanburg County 


nate for that office before him, but we wish to put it on record that his 
manner of making a campaign is fair to all and in no way subversive 
of Democratic principle.” 

Tillman in Tillman used to great advantage the county-to-county 
Spartanburg campaign speakings, a gesture that emphasized “the 
sovereignty of the people.” In the course of such a campaign, June 
11, 1890, the candidates spoke in Spartanburg at the Encampment 
Grounds before a thousand or so people. The local authorities were 
painstakingly courteous. At the proper hour, decorated carriages 
and a decorated four-horse wagon carrying the Glendale Band were 
at the Merchants’ Hotel to escort the candidates to the meeting place. 
In the first carriage rode Mayor Henneman, B. R. Tillman, County 
Chairman Ralph C. Carson, and E. B. Gary. Among the candidates 
was a Spartanburg citizen, Hugh L. Farley, who had at the March 
Convention seconded the nomination of Tillman for governor, and 
had himself accepted a place on the ticket as candidate for the office 
of adjutant general. The crowd was pro-Tillman, greeting its idol 
with noisy demonstration. The “ladies of Glendale” presented him 
with a large horseshoe of flowers at the conclusion of his two-hour 
speech. 

Spartanburg was represented in the September Democratic Con¬ 
vention by a pro-Tillman delegation composed of Dr. S. T. D. Lan¬ 
caster, W. A. Parks, J. L. Ballenger, R. M. Jolly, J. W. Hawkins, 
T. O. Brown, J. W. Foster, E. T. Lawson, R. M. Smith; alternates, 
L. P. Walker, B. F. Hammet, W. J. Shelton. At this convention 
Tillman was nominated by a vote of 269 to 40. 

Under the leadership of A. C. Haskell, who issued the so-called 
Haskell Manifesto, September 30, the Antis bolted and held a con¬ 
vention October 9, 1890. This movement professed to follow the 
example of Wade Hampton’s campaign of 1876; the red shirt was 
waved, and the old name revived—The Straightout Democracy. 
Spartanburg’s representatives at the Haskell Convention were Ed¬ 
ward Bacon and Samuel McGowan, Jr. The Haskell partisans, 
although a small minority, were in many ways very influential through¬ 
out the State. 

Anti-Tillman Tillman’s high-handed methods, the emotional resent- 
E(forts m the men j- occasioned by the retirement of Wade Hampton 
from the Senate, and other replacements in high offices 
led Tillman’s foes to hope for his defeat in 1892. In the spring Spar- 


The Tileman Era 


197 


tanburg Democrats elected an anti-Tillman delegation to attend the 
State Democratic Convention. The chairman of the County Con¬ 
vention that took this definitely anti-Tillman action was T. J. Moore, 
and the secretary was A. B. Woodruff. Other conservative leaders 
were Moses Foster, C. E. Smith, B. F. Hill, Thomas Dixon, John P. 
Fielder, and John W. Wofford. The delegation selected was refused 
seats at the convention. 

On Saturday, August 11, 1892, the county-to-county campaign 
meeting of the “Democracy” was held in Spartanburg at Fairfield 
Park. On Friday night a preliminary rally of between five and six 
hundred Conservatives was held at the opera house. Their candidates 
were J. C. Sheppard, for Governor; James L. Orr, for Lieutenant 
Governor; Lawrence Youmans, for Secretary of State. Speeches 
of denunciation against Tillmanism were made by L. P. Murphy, 
James L. Orr, and Lawrence Youmans. But Saturday was the big 
day, and by sunrise wagons and buggies were rolling in from all 
directions. Special trains brought many visitors. By 10 o’clock 
nearly 4,000 people were surging about the pavilion—which had 1,100 
seats. 

The candidates all spoke, but the crowd heeded only Tillman, 
who spoke characteristically, saying in part: 

Two' years ago Earle and Bratton spoke here and I thought 
I was in a camp-meeting. . . . You Haskellites . . . are 
beaten and you know it, both in and out of Spartanburg. . . . 
You have two newspapers in this county, and you have never 
seen anything good about me in any of them. ... In May, 
when the farmers were busy planting cotton, the Antis captured 
the county by their hocus pocus tricks, but they can’t do it at the 
primary. You little gang of Haskellites can howl and howl, but it 
won’t do you any good. Why is it that people of the towns 
hurrah for Sheppard and fight me? It is because there is a prin¬ 
ciple back of me, and the people now rule, and because the Al¬ 
liance has formed stores which take away the trade and ill-gotten 
gains of town shop-keepers. . . . 

Tillman, bitterly opposed to Cleveland, who was a popular favorite 
in Spartanburg, sneeringly called this county “that Republican County 
of Spartanburg.” 

Newspaper The Spartan characterized “Tillmanism in 1892” as a 
Opposition ver y different thing from what it had been in 1888, 
to i man charging that it now definitely stood for office-grab- 


198 


A History of Spartanburg County 


bing, a three-dollar poll tax, a constitutional convention, war on all 
professions and middle-men, and an attempt to array class against 
class—the rich against the poor, the tenant against the landowner, 
the hireling against the employer, the country against the town. In 
an editorial, August 31, 1892, Petty said: 

Never in the history of a Democratic campaign has this county 
been so excited as it is today. Never have men yielded so to 
partisan politics. . . . The old county has come to a nice pass. 
If the shades of the good and true men who served her in the past 
could return they would hang their heads in shame when they 
viewed the bitterness, malignity, and class hatred engendered by 
the campaign of the last four years. . . . What is to be the end 
of all this hate and dishonest partisanship? 


The elections brought Tillman an overwhelming victory. He 
won in thirty-five counties. The vote in Spartanburg County for 
Tillman delegates was 3,695, and for Sheppard 2,638. Analysis of 
the vote by precints showed definitely a line of cleavage between town 
and country. 


A Tillman Organ: About 1892 the Tillman forces of the State, to 
the Piedmont offset the handicap of having only one daily paper 

Headlight on their side, acquired the Columbia Register and 

employed as its editor T. Larry Gantt, then editor of the Banner, 
published in Athens, Georgia. Gantt had established a reputation 
as an advocate of the policies of the Farmers’ Alliance, and he was 
to be Tillman’s right-hand man in holding the farmers in line and 
in the launching of a State Dispensary system for selling liquor. 
Francis B. Simkins wrote: “Endowed with all the prejudices and 
doctrines of the agrarian agitators of his day, possessed of a spirited 
and direct style, violently partisan but never bitter, Gantt was the very 
man to arouse the farmers against the townsmen.” 


A severe illness forced Gantt to resign the editorship of the Reg¬ 
ister; and he was later induced to undertake the publication in Spar¬ 
tanburg of a pro-Tillman organ, the Piedmont Headlight, a weekly 
paper organized by Stanyarne Wilson, J. D. Leonard, Lamar Wil¬ 
liams, and others. Gantt took over the paper on a lease, stipulating 
that he was to have entire control of its policies; and he gradually 
acquired ownership of the Headlight —the Lighthead, his opponents 
called it. 


The Tillman Era 


199 


Gantt’s Idyllic Gantt lived outside town, on a place he named 
Pictures Of Rural “Hungry Hill.” One weekly feature of his paper 
was the Hungry Hill Letter. A policy of his was 
to visit over the county and write, in an idyllic strain, detailed first¬ 
hand accounts of what he saw and learned, with the definite purpose 
of deepening local pride. While he fought editorially for Tillman 
and his policies, and lost no opportunity to send shafts of ridicule 
through vulnerable spots in the Conservatives’ armor, he was far 
more valuable as a constructive agricultural leader than as a political 
wheelhorse. 

Revulsion Against In June 1901, Gantt pronounced himself sick of 
Tillmamsm the twelve years of wrangling that had embittered 

the people of the State, with no results but easy jobs for a few poli¬ 
ticians. With taxes higher, he criticised the facts that the farmer 
and the working man had not a cent more in pocket, and that the 
women had to toil as laboriously as before all the agitation. “All of 
those roseate promises,” he lamented, “have proven like Dead Sea 
apples, but ashes in the mouths of the people.” He also noted that 
the same men had been in office since 1890, in spite of their clamor for 
rotation in office. 

The county of Spartanburg was the heaviest voting county in 
the State, and was coveted territory for both sides during the pro¬ 
longed period of Tillman’s domination. Gantt’s paper continued its 
support of the dispensary system, even after the editor came to a 
realization that the men who had got into office on the Tillman wave 
as champions of the rights of the farmers were still in office and the 
farmers were still in trouble. In 1906, however, there was a revul¬ 
sion sufficient to sweep out the Dispensary. Spartanburg had never 
been strongly pro-Dispensary, and in the primary elections, September 
13, 1906, gave the local option candidate, Martin Ansel, 4,095 votes, 
and Manning, his opponent, 1,587. Three subjects had been empha¬ 
sized in the campaign speeches: Dispensary, the Good Roads Move¬ 
ment, and Education. With the Dispensary a dead issue, the way was 
clear for closer cooperation in securing better roads and schools. 

In Popular Science Monthly, January 1904, ap¬ 
peared a scholarly study of the census figures of 
1900 with regard to Southern agriculture, by D. D. 
Wallace, a citizen of Spartanburg. While this ar¬ 
ticle dealt with the entire Southern area, much of its illustrative 


D. D. Wallace’s 
Analysis of the 
1900 Agricultural 
Census 


200 


A History of Spartanburg County 


material was, naturally, found at home. At the outset the writer 
commented: “The condition of the Southern farmer has immensely 
improved in the last ten years. Today he stands, for the first time 
since the War of Secession, in a position promising permanent bet¬ 
terment of his farming and of his social position.” Wallace pithily 
described the lien law as having come, in its beginnings, to the farmer’s 
assistance, but as having remained to his destruction, sometimes 
enabling a merchant to exact as much as 200 per cent profit on goods 
sold a farmer. 

Three Cardinal Wallace’s detailed analysis of the agricultural sit- 
Needs of Farmers ua tion as reflected in the census of 1900 led him 
to the conclusion: “The three cardinal needs of the Southern farmer 
today are education, diversification, and credit.” He was emphatic 
in his belief that nature study, science, and practical agriculture 
should dominate the curricula of all rural schools and agricultural 
colleges. 

Tillman in 1885 and Wallace a score of years later agreed that 
to improve agricultural conditions the education of the farming class 
must be improved; and education of the proper sort was provided— 
with increasing efficiency year by year—through Winthrop College, 
Clemson College, the extension courses and activities promoted 
through them, and a constantly improving public school system. Ag¬ 
ricultural courses were placed in the schools in 1914, and a compul¬ 
sory education law was passed in 1921. Tillmanites and Antis equally 
wanted better schools and better roads, and united effort was necessary 
to get them. As these benefits were more widely secured, class feeling 
correspondingly decreased. 

Exposition The Spartanburg County exhibit won the first prize 
Pnze-Winner 0 f ^i QOO at the South Carolina and West Indian Ex¬ 
position, held in Charleston in 1901-1902. This exhibit was pre¬ 
pared by a commission consisting of T. J. Moore, J. L. Stoppelbein, 
N. F. Walker, J. F. Floyd, and F. G. Harris; with Paul V. Moore 
agent in charge. The following description of the exhibit, prepared 
by T. J. Moore, appeared in the Spartanburg Almanac, 1903: 

The space occupied was that allotted to eight counties in the 
State building, 3,000 feet square in floor space and about the same 
on the wall in the rear. The exhibit was arranged on the floor with 
decorative description on the wall behind the eight principal divis¬ 
ions, viz: No. 1, Education and Religion; No. 2, Mineral Waters; 


The Tillman Era 


201 


No. 3, General Manufactures; No. 4, Agriculture; No. 5, For¬ 
estry; No. 6, Minerals; No. 7, Cotton Manufactures; No. 8, 
Household and Art, with artistic reception room in the center. 
The whole, wall surface and overhead especially, was beautifully 
and artistically decorated with lint cotton and hulls, yellow, white 
and red corn, sheafs of oats, wheat, rice, etc., the lettering on the 
wall being done with lint cotton on a blue background. On this 
wall were many beautiful legends which attracted general atten¬ 
tion. Many large and beautiful pictures and photographs illus¬ 
trative of the exhibit adorned the departments. 

In Division No. 1, devoted to Education and Religion, were 
shown elaborate exhibits by Wofford, Converse and Reidville 
. colleges and the city graded and county public schools. On the 
walls was the legend, “We will educate you morally and intel¬ 
lectually—225 schools, 15,000 pupils, 150 churches, 25,000 mem¬ 
bers.” 

In other departments similarly adorned were shown large 
quantities of granite, iron ores, building stone, gold, etc.; the 
products of soap, broom, cotton seed oil, apiary, reed and loom 
harness, fertilizers, etc.; 105 varieties of wood, and every conceiv¬ 
able work of woman’s hands. A large flag bearing the inscription, 
“Winners of first prize, $1,000,” won in competition with the 
other counties of the State, adorned the whole. 

The Pacolet Spartanburg farmers suffered from the disastrous flood 
Flood of June 6, 1903, as did the cotton manufacturers; yet 

the tax books in the fall—after the assessment of the cotton mills had 
been reduced $600,000—showed an increased valuation over the pre¬ 
ceding year of more than a million dollars. At the June term of court 
in 1904, the grand jury presentment said: “The agricultural interests 
of the county are in an excellent condition, and our county has almost 
recovered from the disaster of last June and now we once more take 
the lead in manufacture of cotton goods.” 

The flood of 1903 is usually called the Pacolet flood because of 
the heavy losses it caused in lives and property along that stream, 
but it caused heavy damage also in the Tyger and Enoree basins. Five 
days of almost constant gentle rains preceded a heavy rainfall of 
June 6. At midnight the machinist at Clifton Mill No. 3 noted, but 
not with any sense of alarm, that the Pacolet was eight feet higher 
than its normal level. At half-past three he became alarmed at the 
rapidity of the rise. By six o’clock the entire mill had been swept 
downstream. Shops, boilerhouses, wheel room, operatives’ cottages— 
all went. The stream dashed this wreckage against Clifton No. 1, and 


202 


A History or Spartanburg County 


soon it too was wrecked. Many operatives refused to heed the warn¬ 
ing to leave their homes, and as the water spread over the valley in 
which many of them lived, harrowing scenes were enacted. More 
than fifty persons were drowned, most of them women and children. 
Numbers of people escaped by floating down on the debris or taking 
refuge in trees, as they were carried close to them by the flood. Bales 
of cloth, masses of machinery, trees, timbers, animals, people—all 
were swept along, and the horror-stricken bystanders were helpless. 

The loss of property—but not of life—was nearly as heavy at the 
Pacolet Mills Nos. 1, 2, and 3. No other mills suffered to such an 
extent as Clifton and Pacolet. Bridges on railways and highways 
were washed away, traffic was interrupted, and many industries had to 
be suspended. Wires and communications were out. Congressman 
J. T. Johnson set out on foot to establish communications with the 
country and ask for relief. The monetary loss alone to mill owners, 
farmers, and public carriers was estimated at three and a half mil¬ 
lion dollars. 

“Facts About In September 1906, the Spartanburg Journal issued 
Spartanburg” an “Industrial Edition,” in which were tabulated 
“facts” culled from recent census reports, such as: “The assessed 
valuation of Spartanburg County farm lands was the largest of the 
counties of the State; its eleven cotton seed mills gave it first place in 
this industry in the entire United States, and the county as a whole 
was second in wealth only to Charleston. With 165 school buildings, 
301 teachers, and 16,232 pupils in the public schools of the county, 
Spartanburg County led the State on all three counts.” 

In 1910 the county had 2,657 farm owners, and their lands were 
valued at more than $21,000,000. However, in that year there were 
5,076 tenant farmers. Of the more than 7,000 farms in the county, 
there were eleven of three acres or less, 232 of from three to nine 
acres, 1,186 of from ten to nineteen acres. More than half—4,033 
to be exact—contained from twenty to forty-nine acres. The number 
of farms containing from fifty through ninety-nine acres was 1,966. 
Fifty-six farms contained from 260 to 499 acres. Eleven had from 
500 to 999 acres. There were three farms of a thousand or more 
acres in the county. 

Restored Thirty years after the accession of B. R. Tillman to his 
Harmony position of agrarian leadership, these improved conditions 
and an increasing realization of the mutual interdependence of farm- 


The Tillman Era 


203 


ing, manufacturing, commercial, and cultural agencies had smoothed 
away most of the antagonisms fanned into flame in the nineties. Men 
in Spartanburg were still of different opinions: one school of thought 
held that the movement initiated in 1869 for improved agricultural 
education would have gone steadily forward and achieved without 
friction essentially the same results as had come; the other claimed 
that to the Tillman leadership the State owed Clemson, Winthrop, 
an improved public school system, home demonstration and county 
agents, Four-H Clubs, and all their concomitant benefits. There was 
no difference of opinion as to whether farm life was improved, and 
with it the prosperity of the county. The sore problem of the shift' 
ing tenant farmer and the shiftless laborer remained to vex the thrifty 
rural and urban citizen equally, and to challenge society for many 
years to follow. 


CHAPTER TWENTY 


‘Spartanburg, City of Success 


A City Today it may provoke a smile that in 1880, with a popu- 
Charter lation of 3,253, the little town of Spartanburg applied 
for a charter as a city. Possibly its citizens were intoxicated by 
their own phenomenal growth, for in the decade from 1870 to 1880 
the population a little more than trebled itself, something which had 
not before happened and which has never happened again. 


Spartanburg in 
the Seventies 


During this decade of growth, rapid changes took 
place. For a time after the war the trains were 
stopped, and even in the seventies there were only three trains a 
week each way between Spartanburg and Columbia. All of this 
time, after 1863, Spartanburg had telegraphic communication with 
the rest of the world. Although there were, by 1870, ordinances 
prohibiting such goings-on, letters in the paper from irate or sar¬ 
castic citizens indicate that hogs, cows, and goats roamed the streets 
freely, and that garbage remained on the sidewalks until these scav¬ 
engers disposed of it. In January 1870, the rows of chinaberry 
trees which bordered the square and some of the streets leading from 
it were cut down, to make the coming “railroad city” more like a 
city. Hitching posts were placed along the streets. The public 
well in the middle of the square was filled, and the well house, with 
its curfew bell, removed. The first street lights were installed — 
kerosene lamps along the square and part of Main Street—in Feb¬ 
ruary 1872. Ten years later they were replaced by gas lamps. The 
town had its first banks in 1871, the National Bank in June, and 
the Citizens’ the following October. In 1872 the Express ceased 
publication, and in 1875 the Spartanburg Herald was established, 
edited by T. Stobo Farrow. “Homespun ice” was brought from 
Columbia by trains and described as a wonder in the Spartan of 
September 8, 1870. In 1882 Captain W. B. Hallett began to man¬ 
ufacture ice in Spartanburg and to deliver it from door to door, 
a great marvel. 

“Before the war not a wheel was turned by 
steam within the town limits. By 1874 there 
were six establishments run entirely by steam—one planing, sash 
and blind factory; two carriage and wagon factories; one steam 
saw-mill; one cotton ginning and packing establishment. . .” recorded 
the Carolina Spartan, July 23, 1874. 

204 


Manufacturing and 
Business Progress 


Spartanburg, City of Success” 


205 


In 1880 Spartanburg had about seventy-five business houses of 
various types, including four drug stores, one bank, one bookstore, 
two hotels, and two weekly newspapers. Yet it was still essentially 
a country town; its public square was a picturesque spot, especially 
on salesdays and Saturdays; sometimes a hundred wagons loaded 
with cotton or other farm produce were in it. The statue of Daniel 
Morgan was soon to give the square a new name and a new pride. 

A Board of A Board of Trade was organized September 15, 

Trade Bulletin 1885, and Charles H. Carlisle was accorded credit 
for its inception. The first officers were: George Cofield, president; 
Dr. C. E. Fleming, vice president; Charles H. Carlisle, secretary. 
Ninety-one active members were enrolled and monthly meetings 
were held in the Kennedy Library Building. This body promoted 
all sorts of civic enterprises, developed a cooperative spirit, invited 
distinguished guests to the town, and procured desirable publicity. 

The Board of Trade issued, in 1888, a pamphlet entitled “City 
and County of Spartanburg. Their wonderful attractions and mar¬ 
velous advantages as a place of Settlement, and for the profitable 
Investment of Capital. Please read carefully and hand to a friend.” 
The pamphlet, illustrated with quaint cuts, was printed in Spartan¬ 
burg by Cofield, Petty & Company, and its sponsors were: Joseph 
Walker, Mayor; George Cofield, President of the Board of Trade; 
and Charles P. Barry, Chairman of the County Commissioners. It 
set forth in detail the advantages of Spartanburg, boasting of its 
twenty passenger trains and thirty-five freight trains daily. A small 
map pictured Spartanburg as a hub with spokes radiating in various 
directions. Between Spartanburg and Union were stations called 
Glendale (later Cedar Springs, and later still Delmar), Rich Hill 
(later Rich, today Whitestone), and Pacolet. On the road to Char¬ 
lotte were Clifton, Mount Zion, Cowpens, Thicketty, and Gaffney 
City (after 1904 Gaffney). In the direction of Atlanta were sta¬ 
tions at Airline Junction, Fairforest, Wellford, Vernonsville (later 
Duncan), and Greer. Stations on the Asheville road were Airline 
Junction (later Hayne), Campton, Inman, Campobello, Landrum. 
On the road to Augusta were Becca (later Roebuck), Moore, Switzer, 
Kilgore, Woodruff, Hillsville, and Enoree. 

The United States census report of 1880 showed that Spartanburg 
County had 23 of the 36 towns in the Piedmont region of South 
Carolina. The combined population of these 23 towns was 30,999. 


206 


A History of Spartanburg County 


The location and size of Spartanburg made it the hub about which 
the life and activities of the other towns revolved. Its population 
of 3,253 had increased to 5,544 by 1890; and in 1900 was 11,395. 

Within the first year after Spartanburg became a city, more than 
fifty new residences were built, some of them “stylish and hand¬ 
some.” A company of nine merchants erected a beautiful hotel and 
named it the Merchants’ Hotel. Each of the nine merchants had 
a store on the ground floor. There were ninety rooms on the two 
upper floors. The hotel was equipped with gas, and Spartans pro¬ 
claimed it the handsomest in the Up Country. The newly-created 
city erected a town hall, calling it “The Opera House.” On the 
ground floor were the guardhouse and offices for the city government, 
and the second floor was leased for entertainments. 

The Cowpen* Preparations for an event of national interest occu- 
Centenmal pied Spartanburg in 1880. The Washington Light 
Infantry of Charleston, in January 1880, made the proposal to Spar¬ 
tans that it be permitted to join with them in a centennial celebra¬ 
tion of the Battle of Cowpens. Of this battle the reliable British 
historian, Stedman, wrote: “The defeat of his Majesty’s troops at 
the Cowpens formed a very principal link in the chain of circum¬ 
stances which led to the independence of America.” Now, a hun¬ 
dred years later, the Hon. W. A. Courtenay, Mayor of Charleston, 
had the inspiration to propose the centennial of this battle as a 
“very principal link” for use in reuniting the alienated sections by 
drawing the Federal Government and the Original Thirteen States 
into a joint celebration of Cowpens. 

The Spartanburg response to the Charleston overtures was en¬ 
thusiastic. Spartanburg agreed to cooperate in every possible way 
with the Washington Light Infantry in executing their plans. The 
committee appointed to carry out this resolution consisted of W. K. 
Blake, Dr. H. E. Heinitsh, Charles Petty, General J. C. Anderson, 
Colonel T. Stobo Farrow, Dr. J. B. O. Landrum, Captain S. S. 
Ross. A delegation of this committee visited Charleston as guests 
of the Washington Light Infantry. By July the Spartan Rifles 
had been reorganized in anticipation of the expected celebration, 
assurances of participation by contributions and delegations had been 
received from the Federal Government, Tennessee, and each of the 
Original Thirteen States. John H. Evins of Spartanburg represented 


“Spartanburg, City of Success’ 


207 


the Fourth District in Congress and he exerted himself to enlist the 
interest of the National Government in the undertaking. 

The Battle of Cowpens was fought January 17, 1781, but, be¬ 
cause weather conditions at that time of year would be unfavorable, 
the celebration was set forward into the spring. W. K. Blake, point¬ 
ing out the inaccessibility of the battle ground, proposed that Spar¬ 
tanburg request the honor of erecting the proposed monument “in 
the center of her public ground” and assume the responsibility of 
providing a suitable base. This suggestion was adopted, and the city 
council appropriated $500 for the purpose. Committees were ap¬ 
pointed to care for all necessary arrangements. The cornerstone 
was laid with elaborate Masonic ceremonies, October 7, 1880, many 
of the participants having just come from the Kings Mountain Cen¬ 
tennial Celebration held that day. To insure their presence, the 
ceremonies were conducted in the evening. 

Courtenay devoted himself unstintedly to the centennial prepa¬ 
rations—from January 1880, when he accepted the chairmanship of 
the committee on arrangements, until May 11, 1881, the day on which 
the Cowpens monument was unveiled. On that day Spartanburg 
entertained a crowd that the lowest estimates placed at 18,000, 
while one reporter said it numbered 25,000. The President of the 
United States, James A. Garfield, after accepting an invitation to 
be present, had been forced by the illness of his wife to cancel the 
engagement. The chief orator of the day was South Carolina’s 
former Governor, Senator Wade Hampton, who personally con¬ 
veyed the President’s regrets at his absence. T. W. Higginson of 
Massachusetts, who had commanded a Negro regiment in the Union 
Army, made an eloquent address. Descendants of the commanding 
officers at Cowpens had conspicuous parts in the ceremonies. The 
invited guests included delegations from Congress, descendants of 
the commanders at the Battle of Cowpens, military organizations, 
and thousands of private citizens. The square, later named Mor¬ 
gan Square, was gorgeously decorated with bunting and flags and 
evergreen garlands and lined on all sides with tiers of seats. Mag¬ 
nificent floral tributes were sent from many places. 

Significance of the The Morgan monument commemorates not 
Morgan Monument alone the Revolutionary valor of early Spar¬ 
tans at Cowpens; it was the fruit of the first cooperative effort of 
all the Thirteen Original States and the Federal Government after 


208 


A History or Spartanburg County 


City Utilities: 
Waterworks 


a bloody civil war; and its erection was an expression of the fra¬ 
ternal spirit that united Up Country and Charleston. The base was 
the gift of Spartanburg, town and county, as was the labor of erec¬ 
tion. The shaft of granite and the bronze tablets were the gifts 
of the fourteen participating States. The superb heroic bronze 
statue of Daniel Morgan, commanding officer at Cowpens, was the 
work of the eminent sculptor, J. Q. A. Ward, and was the tribute, 
by unanimous vote of Congress, of the United States Government, 
which appropriated for it $23,000. 

The adequate safeguarding of the growing town 
against fires and the demand for a purer and more 
convenient water supply required the development of a waterworks 
system. Water for use in case of fire was provided during the sev¬ 
enties by building large cisterns at two or three places in the town 
and piping into them the rain water from the roofs of the stores, 
or fitting them with pumps. In 1888 Spartanburg granted a fran¬ 
chise to the Home Water Supply Company, and made a contract 
for fifty hydrants and four public drinking fountains for man and 
beast. A standpipe 100 feet high and with a capacity of 216,000 
gallons was erected on North Church Street. In 1907 the city pur¬ 
chased the franchise, and since that time has owned and operated 
its waterworks. 

The first legislative act authorizing a system of sewerage in Spar¬ 
tanburg was passed December 24, 1890. In 1908 the city created 
a Water Works Commission to administer its water and sewerage 
system, and this plan has operated ever since. The twentieth century 
found Spartanburg owning a waterworks plant, situated twelve miles 
from the city, on South Pacolet River, which supplied the city itself 
and several industrial plants in the county with an unlimited supply 
of filtered water; a metropolitan sewerage system to safeguard 
the health of the city and its suburbs; and two standpipes with a 
capacity of more than two million gallons of water to insure an 
abundance of water under high pressure in case of fire. Besides 
these there is a reservoir holding three million gallons between the 
city and the plant. 

In the seventies a municipal ordinance required every 
family to keep at hand a ladder in case of fires. In 
1867 suggestions were offered for a steam fire engine, but in vain. 
The fire department grew slowly, beginning with a volunteer hook 


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the Eighth 


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The County Jail, Built in 1823 

Sold to the City in the Nineties, and Replaced by the City Hall, Below 



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“Spartanburg, City of Success” 


209 


and ladder company in 1873, adding two Negro companies in 1875, 
and, in 1882, getting the long desired engine. It was named The 
Spartan. 

May 24, 1882, Moses Greenewald was elected captain, and B. B. 
Bishop was elected secretary and treasurer of the Spartan Fire En¬ 
gine Company, a group of public-spirited young men who paid 
dues of twenty-five cents a month for the privilege of risking their 
lives to save the lives and property of their fellow-citizens. B. B. 
Bishop furnished the following roster of the original company, of 
which he was the last surviving member: E. M. Anderson, G. G. 
Avant, R. Bain, Jr., S. J. Bivings, J. A. Blowers, R. E. Brewton, 

B. B. Bishop, A. S. Cheek, T. E. Evins, W. M. Floyd, Mose Greene¬ 
wald, William A. Law, B. M. Lee, C. H. Lenser, J. H. Land, J. M. 
Nicholls, D. T. Pope, O. S. Roberts, R. A. Roberson, J. K. Stuckey, 

C. R. Smith, P. J. O. Smith, J. T. Thompson, J. E. Vernon. 

Old-time members of the early fire companies recall, with 

chuckles, that membership in them was a social and civic honor, 
and their members paid dues and supplied themselves with black 
breeches and boots and red shirts worn for drills and parades. The 
city furnished regulation firemen’s helmets. The chief was paid $100 
a year, in 1886, and his assistant $50. After ten years there were 
three paid firemen, who lived in the reel house and received $30 a 
month each. At that time the fire station was a two-room, dirt-floor 
frame building, and the chief duties of the paid men were to care 
for the horses and equipment. Not until after the World War were 
volunteer companies disbanded and the department organized on a 
salaried basis. On June 16, 1916, Spartanburg entertained the State 
Firemen’s Convention consisting of 200 delegates. By that time 
Spartanburg had a motor truck; a hook and ladder apparatus, drawn 
by two horses; and two hose wagons, each with three horses. The 
first motor truck was bought in 1912, and the horses were given up 
entirely in 1923. 

Bright Lights, On April 23, 1890, the Spartan gloated: “Electric 
Better Streets lights blazed brilliantly forth April 17. Gas lamps 
look now like poor affairs.” A body of citizens serenaded the con¬ 
tractor, Alexander Leftwich, at the Merchants’ Hotel, as an ex¬ 
pression of their gratification. There were fifty arc lights on the 
streets, and within a few weeks fifty additional arc lights at an an¬ 
nual cost of $80 each had been contracted for by the city council. 


210 


A History or Spartanburg County 


For many years the muddy streets and roads occasioned discus¬ 
sion and ridicule. During rainy seasons in winter, traffic was almost 
suspended. In the seventies there were times when men in high-top 
boots could scarcely make their way across Main Street. Wagons 
and carriages stuck in the gummy mud and sometimes remained un¬ 
moved for two weeks. Tradition persists in perpetuating the story 
that, during the late seventies, a mule drowned in the “Red Sea” 
which was Main Street between Church and Liberty Streets. In 
1882 the city was very proud of its one mile of paving. The city 
budget for 1890 and 1891 indicates the great stress then placed on 
street work. In 1894 the city charter was amended, one important 
section providing for an enlargement of the powers of city council 
“to close in, pave, widen, repair, open streets and sidewalks.” In 
1901 the city issued what were designated as “Street Improvement 
Bonds,” with a face value of $50,000, and bearing interest at A T / 2 
per cent. By 1908 Spartanburg claimed to have the “best paved 
streets in the South,” and as having expended within the preceding 
ten years $300,000 on street improvements. In 1909 Dr. T. H. 
Law pronounced Spartanburg “the most beautifully and thoroughly 
paved city in all this region.” All of the chief thoroughfares were 
macadamized and the sidewalks paved with cement. Main, Church, 
and Magnolia Streets had been straightened and widened and graded 
before being given a hard-surface treatment. The Herald of June 
12, 1912, said: 

But a few years ago Morgan Square was the assembly ground 
for the wagon trains from North Carolina and other distant 
points, and nightly the neighborhood was illuminated by camp 
fires and lanterns. Today the Square is a paved court, having 
for its center a handsome fountain and park in which flowers 
spell the words, “Spartanburg, City of Success. . .” 

In 1919 the city contracted for a paving program which resulted 
in the hard-surfacing of Howard and Union Streets and of Morgan 
Square. 

Traffic and I n 1884 Tanner’s and Gentry’s livery stables pro- 

Transportation v ided those who did not have their own horses and 
vehicles with public transportation to Glenn Springs or Garrett 
Springs, later called Rock Cliff, or to any desired destination. In 
1890 Blowers’ livery stable advertised, for Converse College stu¬ 
dents, a special bus service “from the city reservoir, along Church 


“Spartanburg, City of Success” 


211 


and Main Streets,” guaranteeing safe transportation at the same 
prices street cars would charge. 

In 1892 the Spartanburg Gas and Electric Light and Power 
Company, chartered by Alexander Leftwich, Andrew E. Moore, 
and H. E. Heinitsh, initiated a street railway system, and the Spar¬ 
tan, June 15, 1892, chronicled the appearance of the first street car, 
which ran from the railroad crossing on Main Street to Pine Street, 
presumably drawn by a mule, for a week later the same paper an¬ 
nounced the arrival of a dummy engine and an open coach to super¬ 
sede the “solemn-looking mule.” On August 3 the paper contained 
caustic comments on the dummy engine which, after distressing 
smoke and sputtering, had blown up Sunday afternoon on Magnolia 
Street. Two weeks later the dummy was reported still “laid up for 
repairs,” with no prospect for a new one. 

Meanwhile, the Spartanburg Belt Electric Railway and Trans¬ 
portation Company had been chartered by D. E. Converse, John H. 
Montgomery, Joseph Walker, T. C. Duncan, M. W. Coleman, in 
December 1891, “with the purpose of building electric railways 
from some point on the North Carolina line toward Forest City 
and Rutherfordton to Glendale and Clifton, to Cedar Springs, Paco- 
let Mills, to Glenn Springs ; and to connect at convenient points with 
the Lockhart Shoals Railway, the Charleston and Western Carolina 
Railway, and to consolidate with other railroad companies.” 

After controversy, criticism, and compromises in connection with 
the electric railway, eventually the Spartanburg Railway, Gas and 
Electric Company built a road extending to Glendale, Clifton, and 
Saxon, and with tracks in Spartanburg passing through Main Street 
from the railway station to Pine Street, and along Church Street 
throughout its extent. In 1906 this company had fifteen miles of 
track and ten trolley cars; and amusement parks at Glendale and 
Rock Cliff provided objectives for picnics and pleasure rides. 

Nothing affords a clearer view of the sudden spurt in the city’s 
growth and the range of its undertakings during this period than a 
comparison of its treasurer’s reports for 1890 and 1891. The actual 
expenditures for the fiscal year ending October 20, 1890, amounted 
to $19,754.22. The next year the amount was $35,815.03. 

A Fourth The State legislature passed an act, December 23, 

Courthouse 1889, authorizing the Spartanburg County Commis¬ 
sioners to purchase a new site, condemn lands if necessary, and erect 


212 


A History of Spartanburg County 


a new courthouse, and to issue bonds, to be known as “Court House 
Bonds,” up to $50,000. The commissioners were authorized to sell 
“the present courthouse” and appropriate the proceeds to the new 
one, retaining use of the old until the new was completed. They 
were further permitted, at their discretion, to levy a tax instead of 
issuing bonds, if in their judgment such a course seemed better. 
This they did. 

On February 3, 1891, the old courthouse was sold for $15,150 
to the T. C. Duncan syndicate, a group which had already purchased 
the old Palmetto House at the corner of East Main and North 
Church Streets, and which had replaced the hotel with a block of 
stores known as the Palmetto Building. The courthouse was in due 
time replaced by a building named the Duncan Building. To make 
way for this building, one of the loveliest specimens of architecture 
Spartanburg ever had was destroyed. 

The new courthouse was built on Magnolia Street, on the former 
home places of Simpson Bobo and T. O. P. Vernon. May 22, 1891, 
the cornerstone was laid with proper ceremony, and in March 1892, 
the building was turned over to the county commissioners, who pro¬ 
nounced it “an ornament and honor to its people.” 

Formation of In the midst of prosperity the county received a 
Cherokee County severe blow when Cherokee County was created, 
with Gaffney City as its seat of government. Gaffney City was in¬ 
corporated in 1875, on the site of Michael Gaffney’s trading post and 
racing path, less than two miles from Limestone Springs. It was 
the largest town in Spartanburg County. 

In 1868 William Jefferies, Esq., and Dr. John G. Black led an 
unsuccessful effort to organize a new county of which Gaffney’s, as it 
was then known, should be the seat of government. In the seventies, 
eighties, and nineties, other efforts were made, until finally, in 1897, 
Cherokee County was created—with a large and richly historic section 
of Spartanburg and smaller segments of Union and York counties 
combined to make up its area of 373 square miles. 

Public Buildings In 1903 the city council ordered the destruction of 
m Spartanburg th e Opera House, the pride of the city for more 
than twenty years. This was done to make possible the widening 
of Main Street for paving. The building was not sold until 1906 and 
brought $12,123, the city reserving the clock and bell, which were 
installed in the courthouse tower. The lot on which the Opera House 


“Spartanburg, City of Success” 


213 


stood was sold to the Masonic Temple Corporation, chartered in 
1907, but it was 1928 before the Masonic Temple now occupying the 
lot was erected. The new City Hall was built in 1914. To make way 
for it, the picturesque county jail, built in 1823 of soapstone and field 
rocks from quarries in the Tyger River area, was destroyed. A new 
jail was erected on a lot adjoining the new courthouse. Jail Street 
was renamed Wall Street. 

Spartanburg had its first Federal building in 1906, at Walnut 
and North Church streets, built at a cost of $75,000. The Harris 
Theater, on North Church Street, with a seating capacity of 1,500, 
was built in 1907 to fill the place of the opera house. A Young Men’s 
Christian Association building was erected on Magnolia Street in 
1907. The building on East Main Street was put up in 1914. 

The Kennedy In October 1882, a deed of gift to the city of Spartan- 
Library burg was executed by Mrs. Helen F. Kennedy, widow 

of Dr. Lionel C. Kennedy, for a thirty-foot lot facing what is now 
Kennedy Place, and was conditioned on the city’s building on it 
within five years a suitable library room to be called the Kennedy 
Library. The donor named as trustees P. F. Stevens, James H. Car¬ 
lisle, Daniel A. DuPre, T. Sumter Means, C. E. Fleming, and John 
Earle Bomar. The lot thus donated had been the site of Doctor Ken¬ 
nedy’s office. Mrs. Kennedy also donated to the library her hus¬ 
band’s valuable collection of books. A two-story library building 
was erected, and a large, handsomely furnished room in it soon be¬ 
came a popular meeting place for small organizations. 

In 1903 the city council made an agreement with the agents of 
Andrew Carnegie, in compliance with which the council pledged to 
make the library an annual appropriation of $1,500, and bought, for 
$7,000, the Blake lot on Magnolia Street as a site for a new building 
for the Kennedy Library. Carnegie donated $15,000 for the con¬ 
struction of this building, which was completed in 1906. 

Hospitals The first steps toward a public hospital were taken in 
1904, when the city council voted an appropriation of $50 a month 
for six months to aid the Spartanburg Hospital. In 1905 the Spar¬ 
tanburg Hospital was incorporated with a capital stock of $5,000, 
the incorporators being H. R. Black, J. L. Jefferies, and George W. 
Heinitsh. In 1907 the capital was increased to $25,000 and a building 
was erected at 162 North Dean Street. That building, after the 


214 


A History of Spartanburg County 


erection in 1920 of a county hospital, became the Georgia Cleveland 
Home. 

Other hospitals were being privately operated in the city. The 
Good Samaritan Hospital was opened in 1907 on Forest Street, in a 
building erected in 1854 for the Spartanburg Female College. In 
1914 this building was taken over by the United States Public Health 
Service for use in the first pellagra investigations conducted under its 
auspices. The Good Samaritan Hospital was moved to the large 
brick house at College and Magnolia Streets, originally built as the 
residence of Joseph Wofford Tucker, the first president of the Spar¬ 
tanburg Female College. In 1916 the Steedly Hospital Company 
was incorporated with a capital of $50,000, and erected at 320 East 
Main Street the building later bought by the Young Women’s Chris¬ 
tian Association and afterwards converted into an apartment hotel, the 
Wellington. Two hospitals for Negroes were operated in privately 
owned buildings, the People’s Hospital on South Liberty Street and 
the John-Nina Hospital on North Dean Street. 

New Many new churches were erected during this period. The 
Churches Roman Catholics, in 1883, built St. Paul’s on North Dean 
Street, a replica in miniature of St. Patrick’s in Charleston. In the 
late eighties the congregation of Central Methodist Church erected a 
brick building at a cost of $14,000. The Presbyterians built at East 
Main and Liberty Streets a brick church costing over $10,000. The 
Baptists, in 1902, sold for business purposes their brick church of the 
seventies with its “towering white steeple,” and at a cost of $60,000 
built a pressed brick structure at East Main and Dean streets. 

Under the leadership of Dr. S. T. Hallman, the Lutheran de¬ 
nomination, September 28, 1902, organized a church in Spartanburg 
with seventeen charter members. In 1907 the Woman’s Memorial 
Lutheran Church was completed at a cost of about $8,000 and dedi¬ 
cated October 20. May 1, 1905, the Associate Reformed Presby¬ 
terians organized a church here with twenty charter members, and 
the following year paid $3,250 for a lot at East Main and Advent 
Streets, building on it in 1909. In 1911 the Greek Orthodox church 
was built, at the time said to be the only church of that faith between 
New York and Atlanta. In 1917, at Union and South Dean Streets, 
the Jewish Synagogue, B’nai Israel, was erected. All of the older 
denominations built on the outskirts new churches or missions, sev¬ 
eral of which were to become strong churches. 


“Spartanburg, City of Success” 


215 


The most spectacular church ever built in Spartanburg was El 
Bethel Methodist Church, erected in one day, May 1, 1912, at South 
Church and Logan Streets. At the time this building attracted nation¬ 
wide publicity. A moving picture feature was made of it. Hundreds 
of spectators watched the operations, which began on a cleared space 
at seven o’clock in the morning and ended the same evening with a 
religious service in the building—completed even to a coat of paint. 
Although the church has since been added to and altered, it is always 
spoken of as the “One-Day Church” and is popularly regarded as a 
landmark. 

Building and The city of Spartanburg was almost rebuilt in the last 
Business years of the nineteenth century and the early part of 
the twentieth century. The week of October 8, 1890, was designated 
as “A Gala Business Week,” and was marked by important land 
sales and a “Business Carnival” in the Opera House. During this 
week eight building lots on Fairview Avenue were sold at prices 
ranging from $208 to $975. A tract, beginning on Chinquapin Creek, 
and known as the “old shooting-ground field,” was sub-divided along 
Oakland Avenue and several lots on it were sold at prices running 
from $154 to $404. Six lots in what had been the “Dean Grove,” 
east of North Dean Street, brought from $404 to $520. All of these 
lots were sold by the front foot. Four lots, each containing more than 
one and a third acres, “opposite Mr. Converse’s new residence,” on 
Pine Street, brought more than $800 each. 

The spectacular entertainment called “A Business Carnival” was 
given in the opera house, the seating capacity of which was 600. 
After an audience of more than 800 had been jammed into it, many 
were turned away. To enumerate the sponsors and their representa¬ 
tives would be to catalogue all of those socially or financially great 
or near-great in the Spartanburg of the period. Mrs. C. E. Means 
was general manager. The variety program was characterized by 
brilliant costumes, gay music, and catchy or timely verses written for 
the firms represented. 

At this period Spartanburg experienced a transformation of resi¬ 
dential into business areas. Magnolia street had become, in the fifties, 
a leading residential street on which stood stately homes surrounded 
by beautifully planted grounds. One by one, beginning about 1890, 
they were replaced by public institutions or office buildings. The Mag¬ 
nolia Street School (1889), the new courthouse (1892), the new 


216 


A History or Spartanburg County 


Carnegie building for the Kennedy Library (1905)—these three led 
the van. Some of the loveliest homes the city ever had succumbed 
to this march of progress. Before many years Magnolia Street had 
become entirely a business street from Morgan Square to the railway 
station. On Church Street, also, business began to encroach on the 
dwellings of older citizens. Elegant new residences went up along 
East Main Street, Pine Street, and some of the newer short streets, 
which were being opened up or extended over the city. In 1906 
the farming area that is now Converse Heights was opened for resi¬ 
dential development. 

During the period many privately owned mercantile buildings and 
warehouses were erected. The Southern Railway built a new pas¬ 
senger station costing $25,000. The long-dreamed-of railroad, which 
was to connect Charleston and Cincinnati, became, in 1909, a reality, 
and, October 29, its first trains brought in guests and excursionists 
and occasioned speeches, banquets, and barbecues. Later trains were 
to bring it what was of greater importance—coal from the fields of 
Kentucky and West Virginia. 

The Confederate On January 5, 1910, the contract was let to erect a 
Monument Confederate monument at the intersection of South 

Church and Henry Streets. Funds for its erection came from the 
United Daughters of the Confederacy, the Sons of Confederate Vet¬ 
erans, newspapers, the city council, and school children. The corner¬ 
stone was laid August 17, 1910, in the presence of more than three 
thousand persons. Colonel T. J. Moore acted as master of ceremonies 
on behalf of Mrs. C. E. Fleming, president of the Spartan Chapter, 
United Daughters of the Confederacy. Captain Charles W. Carlisle, 
at that time ranking officer of the Confederate veterans of Spartan¬ 
burg, delivered an address. Mrs. Charles Petty deposited in the 
cornerstone the following: lists of members of the Spartan Chapter 
and of the Children of the Confederacy; a copy of “The Confederate 
Veterans’ Edition” of the Herald, August 17, 1910; two copies of 
the Journal of the same date; and some coins. The monument, com¬ 
pleted January 21, 1911, is forty feet in height and is surmounted 
with the figure of a Confederate soldier. The granite column that 
supports the statue was originally intended to be used in the building 
of the capitol at Columbia, and was given to Spartanburg by an act 
of the State Legislature. Every year on the 10th of May brief exer¬ 
cises are held at the monument, when some outstanding citizen delivers 


Spartanburg, City of Success” 


217 


a brief eulogy on the Confederate dead. The women place laurel 
wreaths at the base of the shaft, and the school children scatter about 
it flowers. 

A Confederate Spartanburg entertained the Annual Reunion of the 
Reunion Confederate Veterans of South Carolina, August 17- 

19, 1910. The Veterans in attendance numbered about 2,500, besides 
the many Sons of Veterans present. The meetings were held in the 
Harris Theater on North Church Street, at that time the largest 
auditorium in the city, with a seating capacity of 1,500, and it was 
filled to overflowing at all the exercises. Three welcoming addresses 
and responses were made: on behalf of Camp Joseph Walker, Charles 
Petty welcomed the visitors, and was responded to by State Com¬ 
mander General B. B. Teague of Aiken; H. B. Carlisle represented 
Camp Oliver Edwards, Sons of Veterans, and A. L. Gaston, of 
Chester, responded for the visiting sons; Colonel T. J. Moore wel¬ 
comed the Red Shirt Men of Seventy-Six, and the response was made 
by J. C. Stribling of Pendleton. Colonel U. R. Brooks of Columbia 
was the orator of the day at the opening joint meeting of these three 
organizations. The city and the local organizations were hosts at a 
dinner on the courthouse lawn. Mrs. C. E. Fleming, president of 
the Spartan Chapter, U. D. C., threw open her house for a reception 
to visiting ladies on the second day of the Reunion. On that day 
addresses were made by W. C. Pritchard, a former commander of the 
Virginia Division, U. C. V., and George B. Timmerman, a former 
commander of the South Carolina Division. In the evening an enter¬ 
tainment in the Converse College auditorium was provided for all 
the visitors. Polk Miller was the attraction offered. The same 
evening a ball was given in Ravadson Hall by the Oliver Edwards 
Camp, Sons of Veterans. This ended the entertainment provided 
officially for the visitors, but on August 19, a railroad excursion to 
Altapass at nominal rates enabled those who wished a trip to the 
mountains to gratify their desires. 

Cotton An especially important step taken by Spartanburg citizens 
Mll,s was the organization of two companies to erect cotton mills 
within the city limits. The Spartan Mills, of which Captain John 
H. Montgomery was made president and treasurer, was organized 
in 1888 by local capitalists with a capital stock of $150,000. Soon, 
however, the original plans were modified and Northern capitalists 
were enlisted in the enterprise, the capital stock being increased to 


218 


A History of Spartanburg County 


$500,000. The list of directors included W. E. Burnett, A. H. 
Twichell, J. B. Cleveland, D. R. Duncan, among others. 

All the brick used in building Spartan Mills, nearly five million, 
were made in Spartanburg The company acquired sixty acres of 
ground and erected one hundred and fifty neat four-room cottages. 
The directors named the village “Montgomeryville.” The new mill 
was the pride of the city, having a smokestack which was the highest 
in the State, and believed to be the only round one in the South. This 
stack measured 40 feet in diameter at its base, and was 178 feet high. 
When it was finished, Mrs. Montgomery had a sumptuous turkey 
dinner served to the directors on the platform which surrounded the 
top. From this elevated viewpoint they were able to think of them¬ 
selves as seated at the very center of the Hub City, and to survey its 
spokes stretching in all directions. 

“One dreary rainy dismal day” in 1890, as Ed McKissick told it, 
a Spartanburg business man, J. H. Sloan, put on his rubbers, took his 
umbrella in hand, and set out to raise subscriptions on stock for a 
cotton mill that would provide additional employment for the inhabi¬ 
tants and would utilize the waste products of the mills already estab¬ 
lished by making them into ropes, bags, and cotton bats. In a few 
hours he secured more than the $50,000 he had set as his goal. As 
a result, Beaumont Mills was incorporated, with Sloan as president 
and treasurer, and, as directors, Joseph Walker, V. E. McBee, J. E. 
Reynolds, W. F. Bryant, C. E. Fleming, J. B. Cleveland, H. A. Ligon, 
and R. L. Cumnock After a brief period of operation this mill was 
enlarged and equipped as a standard cotton mill. 

T. H. Law in the Spartanburg Herald of August 22, 1909, made 
the statement: “Spartanburg city with its numerous resident mill pres¬ 
idents has become a center of cotton manufacturing larger in its opera¬ 
tions than that centering in any other single city in the South.” 
There were then in the city limits, or on its outskirts, the following 
mills: Arkwright, Beaumont, Crescent, Spartan, Drayton, Glendale, 
Clifton, Whitney, Saxon Mills. The presidents of these and several 
other mills in the county resided in Spartanburg. 

Boasts June 25, 1912, the Herald issued a “Booster’s Edition,” 
which was also something of a boaster’s edition, enumerating and 
describing Spartanburg’s six banks, four hospitals, one theater, one 
vaudeville house, four motion picture houses, six building and loan 
associations, twenty-four passenger trains daily, twenty-five churches, 


Spartanburg, City of Success 1 


219 


nine public schools, three parks, a country club, and 414 automobiles. 
The paper gloated over the annual production of 75,000 bales of 
cotton in the county, and over the county’s being the State’s leading 
mule market, with an annual business of a half-million dollars. 

In the fall of 1912 the Chamber of Commerce instituted a drive 
for $15,000 for civic improvement. This campaign brought to public 
attention various appellations given the town by Spartans themselves 
or their friends: The City of Smokestacks and Education, the Hub 
City of the Piedmont, the Lowell of the South, the Athens of South 
Carolina, the City of Wideawakes, the City of Success. This last 
phrase was, during a long period, accorded a semi-official status. 
There was a park in Morgan Square with the words, “Spartanburg, 
the City of Success,” in floral design on its green sward. The Herald 
used the tag at the end of its editorial column every day. The Cham¬ 
ber of Commerce printed the legend on its stationery. When, in 1916, 
the Chapman Building—today the Andrews Building—rose into the 
air eight stories, Spartans pointed proudly to “The Skyscraper” as 
one more evidence that theirs was a City of Success. 


CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE 

Education and the Arts 


Educational Undaunted by the loss of the Spartanburg Female 
Leadership College and the removal of the Episcopal Theological 

Seminary, the people of Spartanburg pressed forward in their pro¬ 
motion of educational activities. They entertained the first State 
Teachers’ Institute; they supported Wofford College Lyceum As¬ 
sociation ; they encouraged the founding of a new female school— 
Piedmont Seminary; they instituted an excellent graded school sys¬ 
tem ; they founded Converse College; they promoted and supported 
the South Atlantic States Music Festival; they furnished the pio¬ 
neers in two forms of adult education, night schools for illiterates 
and the Textile Industrial Institute. 


First State In welcoming to Spartanburg and Wofford 

Teachers’ Institute College the members of the first “Normal In¬ 
stitute” held in South Carolina, James H. Carlisle said: “This is 
the first time in the history of our State that one hundred and fifty 
teachers have met under the same roof.” This meeting came about 
through the active cooperation of the faculty and trustees of Wof¬ 
ford College, State Superintendent of Education Hugh S. Thomp¬ 
son, and the trustees of the Peabody Fund for the Promotion of 
Education. The enrollment reached two hundred, half the counties 
of the State being represented. 

This teachers’ institute lasted from August 3 to August 27, 1880, 
and was directed by Professor Louis Soldan, of St. Louis, a grad¬ 
uate of the University of Berlin. The faculty included A. T. Peete 
of Spartanburg, E. W. Riemann of Lexington, R. M. Davis of 
Winnsboro, and H. P. Archer of Charleston. Classes were held 
daily at Wofford College for three or four hours. In the evenings 
lectures were given in the courthouse, and were open to the public 
free of charge. The lecturers included, besides the regular staff, 
Professor G. J. Orr, State Commissioner of Education of Georgia; 
Professor S. P. Sanford, of Mercer University; President Kemp 
Battle, of the University of North Carolina; and Professor E. S. 
Joynes, of the University of Tennessee. Local citizens extended the 
visitors many courtesies, the most important being an excursion to 
Hendersonville as guests of the city council. 

220 


Education and the Arts 


221 


The Graded The first session of the Spartanburg graded school 

School System began October 6, 1884, and ended June 1885. The 
year’s enrollment was 222 white and 175 colored pupils. On the 
board of trustees were: C. E. Fleming, President; Charles Petty, 
Chairman; John B. Cleveland, Clerk; George Cofield; and W. E. 
Harris. The first superintendent was William S. Morrison, previous¬ 
ly principal of the Well ford high school, who received a monthly 
salary of $75. The other white teachers were Misses Sallie Carson 
and M. H. Girardeau and Mrs. E. E. Evins. R. M. Alexander 
taught the colored school. 

No records were preserved for the first two years, but the “First 
Annual Report of the City Superintendent of Public Schools,” pre¬ 
pared by Lyman H. Ford, appeared June 14, 1887. Ford reported 
four schools: Carlisle school, with six teachers, for white pupils; 
Silver Hill, with three teachers, for Negroes; Grant and Lincoln, 
each with two teachers, for Negroes. These schools enrolled 338 
white and 491 colored pupils. The total amount of the salaries of 
the thirteen teachers was $3,398.25 for a session beginning Septem¬ 
ber 27, 1886, and closing June 10, 1887. The operating expenses— 
janitor’s pay, brooms, chalk, report blanks, repairs—amounted to 
$157.80, and were provided for by charging each pupil a “contingent 
fee” of ten cents. The entire cost per pupil enrolled was $3.76. 
Ford complained that no school building had sufficient seating ca¬ 
pacity for the children enrolled. He protested that seven grades 
were insufficient, and urged the trustees to raise the curriculum at 
once to ten grades and to set their ultimate goal as twelve grades. 
He also requested additional blackboards and furniture. He reported 
his introduction into the course of study of physiology, industrial 
drawing, and vocal music. He also urged the board to appeal to 
the legislature for permission to extend the scholastic age beyond 
sixteen years. 

In 1889 the city erected a modern school building on the lot ad¬ 
joining the present site of the Kennedy Library, and it was occupied 
April 7, 1890. The buildings previously used had been rented, and 
the historian Landrum recorded as a fact that this was “the first 
building erected specifically for graded school purposes in the State 
outside Charleston.” It was of brick, three stories high, with an 
auditorium on the third floor, and five large class rooms on each of 
the other floors. There were offices, and large playgrounds. 


222 


A History of Spartanburg County 


The first white class was graduated from the city schools in 1896, 
and the first Negroes in 1898. The white children then had two 
schools, on Converse and Magnolia Streets; and the colored children 
had one, on Dean Street. From that time progress and improvement 
in the city school system proceeded steadily. 

Converse Converse College grew out of the civic pride of Spartans 
College an( j t j ie j r desire to keep their daughters at home while, at 
the same time, providing them with the best possible educational 
facilities. Similar motives had actuated the founders of the Spar¬ 
tanburg Female College, with the removal of which a chapter in the 
educational history of Spartanburg closed. However, it had a sequel, 
which began March 22, 1889, when a group of citizens organized a 
corporation for the purpose of building a “higher girls’ school” in 
Spartanburg. The incorporators were D. E. Converse, J. B. Cleve¬ 
land, Charles H. Carlisle, W. E. Burnett, H. E. Ravenel, George 
Cofield, George R. Dean, D. R. Duncan, H. E. Heinitsh, Bishop A. 
Coke Smith, Joseph Walker, and B. F. Wilson. H. E. Ravenel was 
secretary, and was the last survivor of this group. These men pro¬ 
ceeded as they would in launching any business enterprise, by agree¬ 
ing to issue one thousand shares of stock at $25 each. These sub¬ 
scriptions were made with no expectations of financial returns on the 
investment. After the success of the undertaking was assured a board 
of directors was chosen: D. E. Converse, President; D. R. Duncan, 
C. E. Fleming, Joseph Walker, John H. Montgomery, J. B. Cleve¬ 
land, N. F. Walker, W. E. Burnett, W. S. Manning, Secretary and 
Treasurer. The St. John’s School property, a small group of brick 
buildings on a campus of forty-four acres, was bought; a new building 
was erected; the institution was given the name Converse College; 
and the first session began October 1, 1890. 

The first faculty included: B. F. Wilson, A. B., President; D. A. 
DuPre, A. M., of Wofford College; A. Coke Smith, A. M., D. D., 
of Wofford College; T. D. Bratton, A. B.; George Heinitsh, M. D.; 
Carl S. Gaertner, Music Director; the Misses Nannie Gary Black- 
well, A. B., A. M.; Mattie B. Gamewell; Fannie A. Camp, A. B.; 
Mary V. Woodward; Eleanor L, Long, Art; and Cora Steele, Pri¬ 
mary Department; Mrs. Lula Butler Thompson, Matron. W. K. 
Blake, at one time president of the Spartanburg Female College, pre¬ 
sided over the opening exercises, and President James H. Carlisle, of 
Wofford College, made the principal address. Charles Petty, editor 


Education and the Arts 


223 


of the Spartan, wrote: “Never in the history of the State has any 
institution for boys or girls been started with so many favorable sur¬ 
roundings.” 

An unusual, and most fortunate, arrangement was made by which 
the board of directors leased the new institution for five years to 
D. E. Converse and B. F. Wilson. These two men had vision and 
courage. A friend, E. E. Bomar, remonstrated with Converse that 
the new building and its appointments were too elegant. His reply 
was: “If we make the best appointments, even though they seem 
costly, the people will patronize them. The American people always 
want the best.” When the end of each year rolled around, D. E. 
Converse made up from his private purse all deficits in the operating 
expenses of the college. Other trustees made additional gifts from 
time to time. B. F. Wilson, president for the first twelve years, set 
before the institution as its ultimate goal a standard equal to that of 
any woman’s college in the country, and every act of his administra¬ 
tion was determined by that goal. 

In 1896 the original subscribers surrendered their stock and Con¬ 
verse College was incorporated with a self-perpetuating board of 
trustees, the act of incorporation including the following names: D. 
Edgar Converse, John B. Cleveland, Joseph Walker, John H. Mont¬ 
gomery, David R. Duncan, Newton F. Walker, William S. Manning, 
Wilbur E. Burnett, Albert H. Twichell, John Earle Bomar, H. Ar¬ 
thur Ligon, Benjamin F. Wilson. 

The endowment of the college grew steadily, the bequest of D. E. 
Converse in 1899 adding to it $600,000. In 1902, after twelve years 
of service, B. F. Wilson resigned the presidency of Converse College, 
and was succeeded by Robert P. Pell, whose presidency continued 
through thirty years of constantly increasing prosperity. President 
Pell’s ideal, like that of Wilson, was to build up a college second to 
none in academic character and prestige. In 1908 the entrance re¬ 
quirements were raised from eight to twelve units, and the curriculum 
was greatly enriched. This was the year, too, when self-government 
was instituted. During the succeeding years Converse College 
achieved a position among the leading colleges of the country, building 
up its plant and endowment through the efforts of its alumnae and 
trustees, and with the assistance of the General Education Board and 
Andrew Carnegie, to a degree that secured for it membership in all 
the leading educational associations, literary and musical. 


224 


A History of Spartanburg County 


Pioneer Work in The Textile Industrial Institute and the classes for 
Adult Education ac j u it illiterates organized by Miss Julia Selden were 
the first undertakings of their sort in the State, their especial purpose 
being to provide educational advantages for those classes whom isola¬ 
tion or labor conditions had deprived of normal opportunities. Sep¬ 
tember 5, 1911, David English Camak, a Methodist preacher, opened 
“an elementary school for disadvantaged young people of the South.” 
Several mill presidents gave Camak hearty cooperation in his plan 
that every student should work two weeks in a mill to earn his ex¬ 
penses, and devote an alternative two weeks to school. The students 
were thus enrolled in pairs, and exchanged places with each other 
in mill and school at the end of each two weeks. Twenty-five years 
later this school, begun in 1911 with a loan of $100 and a single stu¬ 
dent, reported “an enrollment of 352 young men and women from 
rural, urban, industrial, and mountain areas of eleven Southern 
States.” The institution had become “a standard junior college where 
every student earns all, or approximately one-half of his or her ex¬ 
penses.” The earnings of these students in 1937-38 amounted to 
$43,560. The school today has a campus of thirty-five acres and four 
stone buildings, besides several wooden structures. 

In 1913 Miss Julia Selden of Spartanburg, recognizing the need 
for adult education, organized, with the cooperation of mill authori¬ 
ties and teachers, a number of night schools in mill villages. Teachers 
were paid $1.00 per night, and the expenses of these schools were 
defrayed by the mills. The next year other counties followed this 
example, and soon the State Federation of Women’s Clubs asked the 
legislature to appoint an Illiteracy Commission. In 1918 Wil Lou 
Gray was employed by this commission, and she eventually created 
South Carolina’s widely known Department of Adult Education. 

Musical From the days of Singing Billy Walker and his “Normal 
History Schools,” music was a dominant interest in Spartanburg 
life. The plain folk had their singing associations, the female schools 
stressed vocal and instrumental music, there were neighborhood bands 
in various communities, music was an essential feature of every public 
program. Christmas caroling was customary, and May Day was 
celebrated most usually with elaborate musical entertainments. Mus¬ 
ters and picnics always had bands. After the railroads were built 
the musicians of Spartanburg, Gaffney, and Union cooperated in 



The Kennedy Free Library, 1906 



Wieson Building, Converse College, 1892 



Textile Institute, 1913 













Education and the: Arts 225 

ambitious presentations, and sometimes operated excursions to enable 
the music-lovers of one place to enjoy the production of another. 

Esther and The Presbyterian choir, under the direction of A. H. 
Other Oratorios Twichell and Dr. Wm. T. Russell, who served re¬ 
spectively as organist and choir director for many years, seems to 
have been the first organization to present the popular oratorio, 
Esther, the Beautiful Queen, to a Spartanburg audience. The first 
rendition was made by “a choir of twelve ladies and gentlemen, ac¬ 
companied by the solemn notes of a fine organ presided over by a 
master hand,” July 11, 1867, and was repeated in a few days, in 
response to popular demand. This oratorio probably had more ren¬ 
ditions in Spartanburg than any other musical work of equal length 
except The Messiah. 

The first and second presentations were made for the organ fund. 
In November the same choir repeated Esther for the “church bell 
fund.” In 1872 Esther was again sung for the benefit of a fund 
being raised to repair the steps of Wofford College. All of these 
performances took place in the courthouse, and the organ was moved 
each time. In June 1879, Esther was again presented, this time 
under the auspices of the Spartanburg Choral Union, with guest 
artists. This performance was so successful that it was repeated in 
Union two weeks later. By this time the number of performers had 
greatly increased, and rich oriental costumes, choruses, and appro¬ 
priate scenery were utilized to enhance the pleasure of auditors. The 
solos were rendered by outstanding musical amateurs from Green¬ 
ville, Spartanburg, Union, Limestone Springs, and Glendale. On 
June 2, 1880, a Greenville group presented Esther in the new Spar¬ 
tanburg Opera House for the benefit of the building fund of the Pres¬ 
byterian Church in Greenville. As late as November 30, 1893, the 
news columns of the Carolina Spartan reported that a Spartanburg 
group was to render the cantata Esther in Greenville. 

Other oratorios and cantatas sung by local musicians in the 
eighties and nineties included Joseph in Bondage, Ruth, and Belshaz¬ 
zar. Operettas were also popular, for example Laila, Tzvo Blind Beg¬ 
gars, and Little Red-Riding-Hood. In the Opera House music-lovers 
heard Clara Kellogg, the Boston Symphony Club in a Haydn pro¬ 
gram, and less famous traveling artists. 

The Spartanburg The Carolina Spartan of August 6, 1879, recorded 
Choral Union the organization of the Spartanburg Choral Union. 


226 


A History of Spartanburg County 


Its first officers were: President, J. A. Gamewell; Secretary-Treas¬ 
urer, W. E. Burnett; Musical Director, Professor A. T. Peete. For 
several years this society—which was apparently exactly what its 
name implied, a combination of the choirs and music teachers of the 
town—dominated Spartanburg’s musical life. In 1882 the Spartan¬ 
burg Choral Union was still active, holding weekly practices on Wed¬ 
nesday evening at the Piedmont Seminary, under the direction of 
Professor William L. Johnson. Probably the burning of the Semi¬ 
nary, late in 1882, broke up its activity, for it seems to have disinte¬ 
grated about this time. If so, it was soon to spring up again with 
renewed vigor and a new name. 

The Spartanburg In March 1884, through the joint efforts of 
Musical Association Professor D. A. DuPre of Wofford College and 
Mrs. George Cofield, an organization was perfected and named the 
Spartanburg Musical Association. The first meeting was held in 
Mrs. Cofield’s home; D. A. DuPre was elected president; and W. L. 
Johnson was made director. The first annual concert was given in 
May 1885, and this was followed by another the next May. This 
Association had a large membership and an abundance of musical 
talent, and always drew very large and cultivated audiences. It made 
a practice of giving annual concerts and took the lead in all the town’s 
musical activities. 


The South Atlantic When Converse College was established in 
States Musical 1889, it entered upon a rich heritage of musical 

Festival culture; and no other of its contributions to the 

development of the city, and in fact of the whole Southeast, has sur¬ 
passed in importance its varied musical program. Its first music 
teachers and pupils formed an organization, which they named the 
Mozart Choral Club. The second director of music at Converse Col¬ 
lege, R. H. Peters, was a brilliant young Englishman, a doctor of 
music, Fellow of the Guild of Organists, and Associate of the Royal 
College of Organists, London, England. In 1895, under the guidance 
of this accomplished musician and with the assistance of A. H. 
Twichell, himself a skilled amateur organist and successful financier, 
an annual “Festival of Music,” the first of its kind in the Southeast, 
was begun. The Spartanburg Musical Association gave up its iden¬ 
tity, and its members united with members of the Mozart Club to 
form the Converse College Choral Society, which inaugurated the 
annual music festival on a modest basis in 1895. 


Education and the Arts 


227 


The success of such an undertaking required united community 
support. The business men responded cordially to the request for 
financial aid by forming a list of guarantors. The musicians of the 
town joined the Choral Society and practiced faithfully throughout 
the year, so that each spring Spartanburg had trained choruses of 
from one hundred and fifty to one thousand voices—the number vary¬ 
ing in different years—eager to contribute their part to the festival 
program. 

The program early took a pattern which was adhered to for 
thirty-two years—with two years of omission during the World War. 
The promoters of this ambitious project named their undertaking 
The South Atlantic States Music Festival, and built up, throughout 
the Southeast, a large patronage, which after its first few years taxed 
to their limit the city’s private and public facilities for hospitality. 
The Festival was held preferably the first week of May—sometimes 
earlier or later—and there were five concerts. Wednesday evening 
was designated as Choral Night, and the programs included such 
works as Mendelssohn’s Hymn of Praise, Haydn’s Creation, Handel’s 
Elijah, and Messiah, or light operas, in which the solo parts were sung 
by professional artists and the accompaniments were played by visit¬ 
ing orchestras, while the locally trained choruses bore the main burden 
of the program. Some numbers on each year’s choral concert were 
largely determined by local preferences, often influenced by world¬ 
wide musical interest in special celebrations. Thursday afternoon 
was always devoted to a symphony concert, in which one or more 
distinguished soloists appeared with the orchestra. Thursday evening 
there was an opera, which was rendered without stage effects, but 
with Metropolitan soloists and full orchestral and choral accompani¬ 
ment. Friday afternoon, in the early years, was given over to a 
popular concert mainly for children, and became, from 1913, a concert 
in which the Spartanburg Children’s Festival Chorus was the out¬ 
standing feature. The climax of the Festival was reached in the 
Friday night concert—Artists’ Night—when such preeminent artists 
as Homer, Schumann-Heink, Mary Garden, Farrar, Tetrazzini, 
Gadski, Hempel, Gigli, Nordica, Ponselle, Bonelli, Case, Braslau, 
Bori, Alda, Martinelli, and Easton appeared on the programs. 

The usual practice was to employ for each season an orchestra 
of national reputation and ten or more professional artists of high 
rank as soloists, and to train local singers and performers to partici- 


228 


A History of Spartanburg County 


pate in choral parts of the programs. After some years the festival 
became known as the Spartanburg Music Festival. Its last program 
after the old pattern was presented May 4, 5, 6, 1927; for the under¬ 
current of financial strain, the competition from other cities which 
were emulating Spartanburg’s musical activities, and the increasing 
number of conflicting interests, all led in 1928 to a modification of the 
usual routine. 

The Changed Probably the determining factor in bringing about 
Festival of 1928 a c hange in the nature of the Festival was the de¬ 
sire of the entire community to give first place in the 1928 program to 
a fit celebration of the twenty-fifth anniversary of the presidency of 
Robert Paine Pell, of Converse College. President Pell was un¬ 
willing that the Festival be abandoned, and he suggested combining 
it with the special commencement program, eliminating one of the 
concerts. This suggestion was adopted, and the Festival in its thirty- 
third year was an especially brilliant one. 

The Festival of 1930 brought a thrill to the community because 
on its programs appeared as a professional artist Lily Strickland, who 
was one of the alumnae of Converse College. With that year an era 
in Spartanburg’s history ended, for that was the last Festival of its 
kind. Spartanburg’s social world had for thirty years shaped its plans 
and activities about “Festival Week.’’ Hotels, boarding houses, pri¬ 
vate homes, were all crowded with music-lovers—invited kin, social 
visitors, paying guests. Plans for luncheons, dinners, suppers, dances, 
costumes absorbed fashionable attention for weeks beforehand. 
Nothing in Spartanburg’s community life has replaced that brilliant 
Festival Week. 

The New In 1939 Dean Ernst Bacon of the Converse School of 
Festival Music, with the approval and cooperation of President 
Edward M. Gwathmey, undertook a “New Festival,” which appeals 
to music-lovers from a new angle. Instead of transporting to Spar¬ 
tanburg the leading artists of the world, as was the old goal, the New 
Festival presents local artists and provides music-lovers an oppor¬ 
tunity to present and hear compositions of local origin. Another 
phase of the New Festival is the integration of dramatic and other 
esthetic elements in its programs. The programs include a chamber 
music concert, a musical drama or opera, and a concert made up of 
piano, vocal, and symphony numbers. 


Education and the Arts 


229 


In certain aspects, this undertaking is a more ambitious one than 
was its prototype, but the Converse School of Music today is more 
nearly adequate to such an undertaking and the local talent available 
is more encouraging than in the earlier days; for this institution has 
attained a position of commanding influence in the musical world 
and now gives the bachelor’s and the master’s degree in music. The 
compositions of Dean-Emeritus N. Irving Hyatt are known and 
used in many schools of music, as are also the songs of Lily Strick¬ 
land. Converse graduates command recognition from the best of 
the great musical foundations, and many of them have been awarded 
valuable scholarships. The monthly student recitals are enjoyable, 
and the occasional faculty recitals have the technical and artistic ex¬ 
cellence of professional performances. 

Music in the Sight-singing was a part of the grammar grade 

Spartanburg Schools curriculum in the city schools from 1886, and 
for many years the high school pupils had glee clubs and orchestras 
among their extra-curricular activities. The Children’s Chorus was 
organized by Miss Carrie McMakin, supervisor of music in the Spar¬ 
tanburg City Schools, in 1913, and from that time sang in every Fes¬ 
tival. When the Festival was abandoned, the Children’s Chorus 
continued, and still gives an annual concert, which always crowds to 
capacity the largest auditorium available. In the superintendent’s 
annual report for 1925-1926, mention is made of a seventh grade boys’ 
chorus, a band, a high school glee club, and a violin class. In 1937 
music was introduced into the high school curriculum as an accredited 
subject. Vernon Bouknight, the first supervisor of music in the 
Spartanburg High Schools, presented his pupils in their first concert 
November 10, 1937. On November 10, 1938, the music department 
gave its first anniversary concert, participated in by the two hundred 
and fifty students who had elected music as a subject for credit. Two 
choruses, two orchestras, and two bands took part in the program, 
which was so balanced as to offer something that appealed to every 
taste. Already the crimson-and-black-uniformed Spartanburg High 
School Band is an essential feature in every civic celebration, and the 
annual concert of the high school music department vies in popular 
favor with that of the Children’s Chorus, which is made up of pupils 
from the grammar schools. 

Musical Directly traceable to the influence of the Festival are 

Organizations three vigorous organizations: the Woman’s Music 


230 


A History of Spartanburg County 


Club, founded in 1905; the Spartanburg Children’s Chorus, founded 
in 1913; the Male Chorus, organized in 1932. 

The Woman’s Music Club was formed almost entirely of gradu¬ 
ates from the Converse School of Music. Their main objective was 
self-improvement, and they took two very definite means of achieving 
their goal: by undertaking systematic study courses and programs, 
and by cooperating with Converse College in establishing a series of 
winter concerts, which were designed to supplement the festival. So 
successful was this organization that others similar to it were formed, 
and now there are in Spartanburg many cooperating music clubs, 
besides a number of junior clubs, which are under the guidance and 
sponsorship of committees appointed by the older music clubs. 

The Male Chorus, founded by Wilson Price in 1932 and directed 
by him ever since, has won an enviable reputation and has given con¬ 
certs in many Carolina towns besides Spartanburg. Wilson Price 
lays stress on developing and fostering public appreciation of, and 
participation in, group singing. The Male Chorus has led to the dis¬ 
covery and development of several solo voices of concert quality. In 
1936 a group of civic-minded music-lovers organized a Civic Music 
Association, with the purpose of reviving some at least of the values 
lost by the discontinuance of the Festival. Public support has justified 
this undertaking. 

Craftsmanship Music has been of more importance in the life of 
m Spartanburg Spartanburg than any other of the fine arts. While 
there are examples of good architecture and of artistic landscape 
gardening, there has not been the community concentration of interest 
in either which has been so marked a characteristic of the town’s 
musical history. Probably the iron products of the old iron works 
were utilitarian and conventional, although a wrought-iron gate made 
in the district was awarded a silver cup at the District Fair in 1856. 
No potteries or groups of weavers within the county have commanded 
attention. Weaving was, however, practiced as a household art from 
the pioneer days, and treasured hand-woven coverlets and counter¬ 
panes are to be found in the possession of old families. The designing 
and weaving of these necessities provided workers a means of artistic 
self-expression. Hill’s factory sold in the fifties seamless pictorial 
counterpanes that were probably the work of artistic weavers. 

The carved wood-work and panelings and frescoed plaster ceilings 
in many of the ante-bellum homes which still stand show artistry in the 


Education and the Arts 


231 


house-building crafts. Examples of the art of skilled cabinetmakers 
are to be found in many private homes in the county. But no sys¬ 
tematic account can be given today of any of these earlier craftsmen. 
The fact that Spartanburg early became a leading manufacturing 
section possibly checked tendencies toward individual self-expression 
through the arts. 

Portrait Portrait painters found patronage in Spartanburg as early 
Painters as ig42 } when W. K. Barclay of Charleston, a student of 
Sulky’s, spent three seasons here previous to his early death. He 
painted Benjamin Wofford and his wife, Mr. and Mrs. James Ed¬ 
ward Henry, two children of Simpson Bobo, and possibly other por¬ 
traits of the same period. An especially interesting example of Bar¬ 
clay’s work is his portrait of Simpson Bobo. This picture, owned 
by H. B. Carlisle, hangs in his library, as does another portrait of 
the same subject done nearly forty years later by Albert Capers 
Guerry. 

Guerry’s earliest connection with Spartanburg was as a student 
at St. John’s College. He began to paint very early, for the Preston 
Literary Society owns a portrait of William C. Preston painted by 
him at the age of fourteen. He resided in Spartanburg at intervals 
only, but had a large following here. His works hang in the Wofford 
College Chapel and literary society halls, in the Kennedy Library, 
and in many private homes. Among his most successful efforts are 
his portraits of Robert E. Lee, Lionel C. Kennedy, John G. Landrum, 
James H. Carlisle. The first two hang in the Kennedy Library; the 
Landrum portrait is in Mount Zion Church, a copy hanging in the 
First Baptist Church of Spartanburg; and the Carlisle portrait has 
the place of honor in the Wofford College Chapel. Other portraits 
by Guerry include those of Joseph Walker, J. S. R. Thompson, Robert 
E. Cleveland, and Donald Fleming. His Calhoun, in the State House, 
has been pronounced “a magnificent portrait.” 

In more recent years Mrs. B. King Couper, Margaret Law, Grace 
DuPre, Irma Cook, and August Cook have done portraits of interest 
and merit. All these artists are still alive and at work. 

Art Teaching and Margaret M. Law, after extensive study in Amer- 
Production Today j ca anc [ abroad, and a number of years of teaching 
experience in the Bryn Mawr School of Baltimore, Maryland, re¬ 
turned to her home town in 1936 as supervisor of art in the city 
schools. She is a disciple of the modern school of Cizek, which 


232 


A History of Spartanburg County 


stresses spontaneity in self-expression as the foundation of art-train¬ 
ing, and her work has had a marked influence on the art development 
of the community. 

Grace DuPre, who maintains a private studio in Spartanburg, has 
the unique distinction of being equally at home with the brush or the 
violin, and equally alert as a teacher or a creative artist. August Cook 
is head of the art department of Converse College; and his wife, 
Irma Howard Cook, besides conducting a private class, executes com¬ 
missions in oil portraits and water color landscapes. All of these 
artists exhibit frequently, and specimens of the work of all three, 
and of Mrs. B. King Couper, are to be found in museums, and in 
public and private collections. Mrs. Couper has in recent years lived 
in Charleston. 

Spartanburg In 1923 Mrs. B. King Couper organized in Spartanburg 
Art Club an Arts an( j c ra ft s Club which later became the Spar¬ 
tanburg Art Club. This group, from its formation, became active 
in stimulating popular interest in art by securing public lecturers and 
exhibitions, by arranging study courses, and by maintaining a club 
room. An especially valuable activity has been a survey and listing 
of works of art privately owned in the city, and in some cases securing 
the loan of these for exhibits. The Art Club was instrumental in 
bringing to Spartanburg, in April 1931, the convention of the South¬ 
eastern Arts Association, which held its sessions at Converse College 
and in the Educational building of the First Baptist Church. The 
Art Club has acquired several valuable paintings, etchings, pieces 
of pottery, prints, and busts; and it owns a small reference library. 
This club often holds exhibitions. 


CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO 


Preparations for War 

A Strange The years 1917, 1918, and 1919, formed a strange in¬ 
interlude terlude in the history of Spartanburg. These years 

broke into the steady slow progress of an Up Country town with 
a dynamic energy which startled and transformed the tempo of life 
in that town, and expanded its horizon to the uttermost parts of 
the earth. Within the first months of those years, Spartanburg saw 
a city rise on its borders with a population larger than its own—all 
of them engaged in learning how to meet and inflict death in battle— 
and three years later saw it disappear like a mirage. Always people 
carried about in their hearts a consciousness that their own boys 
were in other training camps or facing death on European battle¬ 
fields ; yet twenty years afterwards, the memory of these things 
had become to most Spartans as fantastic and unreal as a dream, and 
only a few memorials remained to preserve in memory the strenuous 
activities of those years. 

Early in March 1917 Spartanburg began preparations for war 
service. When, on April 6, 1917, war with Germany was officially 
declared, Spartanburg was already mobilizing her forces; and on 
April 11, when the War Department called into service regiments 
of National Guard from Maine to Florida, Spartan soldiers were 
ready for the call. The Red Cross Society was alert; Wofford Col¬ 
lege announced plans to begin military training; Converse set up 
training classes for its students in Red Cross nursing and hospital 
service. 

Company Two In January the Spartanburg company of the 

Coast Artillery Coast Artillery received an official visit from 

Major Phillip R. Ward, Federal Inspector. From the date of his 
visit this company met regularly in the armory in Ravadson Hall 
and drilled on Morgan Square. In July they entered the Federal 
service and were ordered to make an encampment. They secured 
the use of part of Fairfield Park for their camp, which they named 
Camp Hearon in honor of Charles O. Hearon, editor of the Spar¬ 
tanburg Herald. This company left on less than a day’s notice, on 
the morning of August 9, 1917. Members of the Women’s Auxil¬ 
iary of the Young Men’s Christian Association were on hand with 
lunches and goodies when the soldiers boarded a special train and 

233 


234 


A History of Spartanburg County 


set out for Fort Moultrie. The company numbered 116: 101 

privates, five commissioned officers, two non-commissioned officers, 
and eight members of the sanitary detachment. The officers were 
Captain James M. Wallace, First Lieutenants J. Hertz Brown and 
Dr. J. O. Wrightson, Second Lieutenants John N. Wright and 
Jackson S. Burnett of the Battalion staff, and Battalion Adjutant 
Charles Lindsay. Leaving Spartanburg as Company Two, Coast 
Artillery, South Carolina National Guard, these men were soon 
reorganized as Company Seven, Coast Defense of Charleston. One 
after another, most of its original members left the company to enter 
officers’ training camps at Fort Oglethorpe and Fort Monroe, and 
other places. In June 1918, many of them went overseas with 
Batteiy B or the Headquarters Company of the Sixty-first Regi¬ 
ment, Coast Artillery Corps, A. E. F. The company was recruited 
from drafted men and remained on the South Carolina coast through¬ 
out the war. 

The Hampton The Hampton Guards—officially Company F, 

Guards Company F First South Carolina Infantry—had seen active 
service on the Mexican border. They had left Spartanburg for 
Camp Styx, Columbia, in June 1916, and had gone from there to 
Fort Bliss at El Paso, Texas, remaining in service until the following 
December. On April 11, they were called out to do guard duty on 
the railroads and bridges, and departed with even less warning than 
the Coast Artillery Company. Three months later, Company F was 
one of four companies assigned to guard duty at Camp Jackson, 
Columbia, then under construction. 

At midnight, August 5, 1917, in accordance with a proclamation 
by President Wilson, all the State Guards became Federal Troops. 
In October Company F went to Camp Sevier at Greenville, where 
men from the two Carolinas and Tennessee were to be fused into 
the Thirtieth Division. The Hampton Guards became Company 
F, 118th Infantry, Thirtieth Division, United States Army, and left 
Camp Sevier for France May 4, 1918. 

The Hampton Guards left Spartanburg with ninety men and 
three officers: Captain B. T. Justice, First Lieutenant James A. 
Schwing, and Second Lieutenant Grantland C. Green. As was true 
throughout the army, replacements and reorganizations resulted in 
frequent changes of officers and men. Lieutenant James A. Schwing 
was the only Spartanburg officer to serve with the company overseas. 


Preparations For War 


235 


Company C Early in the spring Governor Manning author¬ 

ing Engineers i ze d j Monroe Johnson of Marion to organize a 
battalion of engineers. Johnson in turn asked B. M. English, an 
employee of the Southern Railway in Spartanburg, to recruit a com¬ 
pany here. English was made first lieutenant of the company, which 
was organized May 5, 1917. This, the last of Spartanburg’s volun¬ 
teer companies to be organized, was the first to go overseas, spend¬ 
ing a brief training period at Camp Jackson, Columbia. Then, as 
Company C, 117th Engineers, it was incorporated in the Forty-second 
Division—the Rainbow Division—and went across in October 1917. 

Other Thirty-seven Spartans, graduated from the first Offi- 

Volunteers ce rs’ Training Gass at Fort Oglethorpe, were hon¬ 
ored, August 23, 1917, with a public banquet at the Hotel Cleveland, 
before reporting to camp. When Thanksgiving drew near, the cit¬ 
izens of Spartanburg sent to Company Seven Coast Artillery, sta¬ 
tioned at Fort Moultrie, and the Hampton Guards at Camp Sevier, 
checks, each for $100, for the purchase of turkeys. The Engineers 
were already in France and had to do without American turkey 
dinners. 

Besides three volunteer companies, Spartanburg had numbers of 
young men who had volunteered individually to fight with the Allies, 
or who belonged to the Marines or to units of the Regular Army 
that had gone to France in May. Letters from some of these boys 
appeared in local papers. 

The Draft Meanwhile Congress had passed May 19, 1917, a se¬ 
lective service law, which, as subsequently amended, mobilized all 
the manpower of the Nation from the ages of 18 to 45 inclusive. The 
first registration, June 5, 1917, covered the ages from 21 to 31. A 
second registration was to be made June 5 and August 24, 1918, of 
those who had reached the age of 21 since the first registration. 
On September 12, 1918, those under 21 or over 31 years old were 
to be registered. 

Spartanburg’s first enrollment, of June 5, 1917, included 7,346 
names. From these, local registration boards drew 882 names. 
The men selected were examined, and as soon as the quota of 441 
men had been secured from among them, the draft was stopped until 
further calls were received for replacements of men rejected at the 
camps. Of the 441 drafted men, the western part of the county 
was required to supply 176, the eastern part 160, and the city 105. 


236 


A History or Spartanburg County 


On September 5, 1917, this first body of drafted men from Spartan¬ 
burg went to Camp Jackson. 

Establishment of When, in the spring, it was announced that 
a Training Camp American soldiers were to be sent to France 
and that training camps would be established to get them ready to 
go, Spartanburg requested that a camp be located on its outskirts. 
John F. Floyd, Mayor; Ben Hill Brown, President, and Paul V. 
Moore, Secretary of the Chamber of Commerce; John B. Cleveland, 
Chairman of the Cantonment Committee; Sam J. Nicholls, Member 
of Congress and resident of Spartanburg; Charles O. Hearon, editor 
of the Herald —all of these and other interested citizens cooperated 
in gathering data concerning available camp sites to be presented 
for the consideration of the War Department. They also raised a 
guarantor’s fund of $200,000. On May 29 news leaked out that 
the inspectors sent here by General Leonard Wood had made a fa¬ 
vorable report. Spartanburg was intensely excited, but not until 
June 21 did her citizens receive definite assurance of success. Then 
General Wood made a visit of personal inspection, which was im¬ 
mediately followed by an official announcement from the War De¬ 
partment that Spartanburg had been selected as one of the sixteen 
sites for camps. 

On July 6, 1917, Mayor Floyd affixed his official signature to 
the document putting the United States Government in possession 
of a tract of approximately two thousand acres, described as “be¬ 
tween three and four miles west of the city.” The site selected 
for the camp was skirted on its western side by the historic old 
Blackstock Road, between Disputanta (since renamed Westview) 
and Fairforest, and this road was almost impassable. From Wof¬ 
ford Street, the Snake Road led to the campground. This dirt road 
was utterly unfit for the transportation of soldiers and military sup¬ 
plies, and one of the first official acts of General O’Ryan was to 
have it straightened and paved. The other road leading to the camp 
was a national highway, which twenty years later when Highway 
29 was built, became known as “the old Greenville road.” 

A shorter, more direct road into the camp was a necessity, and 
eventually the road so made became a part of the National Highway 
No. 29. The Southern and the Piedmont & Northern Railway Com¬ 
panies both began at once to lay sidetracks and spur tracks to the 
camp. A track parallel to the Southern’s main line was laid between 


Preparations For War 


237 


Fairforest station and the creek of the same name for entraining 
and detraining soldiers. Spur tracks were laid from Fairforest 
station to the store house and quartermasters’ depots. 

Two weeks after the signing of the lease, the Spartanburg 
Water Works Commission had laid nine miles of twelve-inch main 
from its pumping station on Chinquapin Creek to the camp, em¬ 
ploying more than eight hundred men on the job. The contract for 
putting up the necessary buildings was awarded by the government 
to the Fiske-Carter Construction Company, and by the middle of 
July four hundred carpenters were at work on twelve mess halls. 

Name of The board of officers from the War College Division 

the Camp charged with the selection of a name announced in 
July that the camp at Spartanburg was to be called “Camp Wads¬ 
worth” in honor of Brigadier General James S. Wadsworth, U.S.V., 
a native of New York who had served with distinction in the War 
of Secession, and whose grandson represented New York State in 
the United States Senate. The name of a New Yorker was chosen 
because the New York men were to be sent to this camp for training. 
New York had enough men in its National Guard to form a di¬ 
vision—as did Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Illinois. 


The Camp Major General John F. O’Ryan commanded the 

Commander and New York National Guard, and on July 21 the 
Hi* Staff announcement was made that he would be in 

command of the Twenty-seventh Division at Camp Wadsworth. 
In private life O’Ryan was a lawyer, and he had from youth been 
an enthusiastic National Guard man, having joined the Seventh 
Regiment Infantry as a private before he was of age. He was one 
of the few officers of high rank who had risen step by step from 
the ranks, and was the only National Guard man who had gradu¬ 
ated from the War College at Washington. He had commanded 
the Sixth Division along the Mexican border. At the time of his 
appointment to Camp Wadsworth he was the youngest major general 
in the United States Army, and he was to win distinction as the 
only general from the National Guard who retained his rank and 
commanded throughout the World War. On Major General 
O’Ryan’s staff were Colonel H. H. Bandholtz, Chief of Staff; Brig¬ 
adier Generals R. W. Michie, Fifty-third Infantry Brigade; Henry 
D. W. Hamilton, Fifty-fourth Infantry Brigade; James W. Lester, 


238 


A History of Spartanburg County 


Fifty-second Depot Brigade, and C. L. Phillips, Fifty-second Field 
Artillery Brigade. 

Arrival of the On July 17 Lieutenant Colonel John D. Kil- 

Quartermaster’s patrick of the Quartermaster’s Corps, New York 
Staff National Guard, and his staff arrived to super¬ 

vise and assist in the construction. He stated that six hundred 
buildings and warehouses of wood must be provided as soon as pos¬ 
sible; the soldiers might begin to arrive within two weeks. The 
speed with which the work went forward, the enormous quantities 
of materials needed, the number of laborers required, and the as¬ 
tonishing weekly pay rolls were beyond any local anticipation. Col¬ 
onel Kilpatrick’s plans provided for the ultimate care of forty thou¬ 
sand soldiers. The contractor had to erect 779 buildings of wood— 
warehouses, mess halls, and bath houses. The excellence of his work 
at Camp Wadsworth led, within a year, to Kilpatrick’s appointment 
as a major in the Regular Army. The citizens of Spartanburg, with 
whom he became very popular, presented him, on his departure, with 
a silver loving cup. 


The North Carolina On July 27, 1917, the First Battalion <?f Engi- 
and New York neers, Second Regiment North Carolina National 
Engineers Guard, arrived from Goldsboro. This was the 

first body of soldiers to be quartered at Camp Wadsworth. They 
pitched their tents between the old and the new Greenville roads, and 
set to work on street and water lines. By the end of July, 700 men 
were at work on the camp and 64 buildings were under construction. 

Company D, of Colonel Cornelius Vanderbilt’s Twenty-second 
Regiment New York Engineers, with 162 officers and men, arrived 
on the afternoon of August 3rd. The North Carolina Engineers had 
detrained at the camp; but Company D got off the train at the Caro¬ 
lina & Western passenger station in Spartanburg, and were marched, 
in the midst of a cheering throng, up Main Street to the Young 
Men’s Christian Association Building, for swims, showers, and cold 
drinks. Until their quarters at camp could be made ready they had 
a temporary camp—which they named, in honor of the mayor, Camp 
Floyd—on the “circus grounds,” between Union Street and Marion 
Avenue. 

Spartans began better to realize the magnitude of the camp or¬ 
ganization when they saw that this body of only 162 officers and men 
required, for transportation of its men and equipment, two flatcars, 


Preparations For War 


239 


three boxcars, one stock car, one baggage car, and four tourist 
sleepers. 

When Colonel Vanderbilt’s men moved to Camp Wadsworth, 
they found more than eight hundred buildings under way. Their first 
job after establishing their own camp was road construction. Army 
men and county forces were at work hard-surfacing roads from the 
camp and its warehouses to the railroad terminals. Buildings were 
going up at a rate of twenty a day. The only soldiers in camp August 
15 were the battalion of North Carolina boys, and this company of 
New York Engineers, all laying water lines and building roads. Most 
of the other work going forward was done by the 3,000 civilians em¬ 
ployed. The pay roll for the week ending August 11 was more than 
$75,000. 

Scope of Some idea of the magnitude of the job may be gathered 
the Work f rom the contract, which provided for a camp to take 
care of thirteen infantry regiments, three artillery regiments, five 
brigade headquarters, one ammunition train, one regiment of engineers 
train, one sanitary train, one supply train, one signal battalion, one 
aero squad, one headquarters train. To meet these requirements 915 
buildings were necessary, besides ten large storehouses, the hospital 
unit—which alone required sixty-five buildings, provided with twelve 
hundred beds, and costing $400,000—the remount station, and six 
large Young Men’s Christian Association buildings. The Postal De¬ 
partment demanded a fireproof structure—and so the post office had a 
concrete floor and was built of cement block. The other buildings 
were of lumber. None of them were intended for sleeping quarters, 
tents being provided for that purpose. The camp was laid off in 
rectangles, each containing 416 tents. Each regiment required a plot 
1,000x750 feet in dimension, and each tent accommodated eight men. 

By the third week of August, 1,000 buildings had been completed, 
thirty-seven miles of waterpipe laid, 18,000 electric lights installed, 
and many miles of well-made roads built of crushed rock with tar 
surfacing. The number of men at work was 4,500. Pay day pre¬ 
sented a spectacle; the laborers formed eight long lines before as 
many windows. Four guarded automobiles from a Spartanburg 
bank were used to convey the money for paying off. 

Nature of Men began to inquire of each other just what was im- 
a “Division” pji e( j } n the statement that a Division could be trained 
at Camp Wadsworth. A “Division” in the United States Army in 


240 


A History of Spartanburg County 


time of war, they found, consisted of a grand total of 1,000 officers 
and 26,000 enlisted men divided into various units, each fully equipped 
with shops, supply depots, and so forth. It had a monthly pay roll 
of about one million dollars. Its men were distributed into the fol¬ 
lowing units: nine regiments of infantry; one brigade, consisting of 
two regiments of field artillery; one regiment of cavalry; one field 
battalion of three companies of signal corps; one bakery company; 
one battalion of engineers with three companies; one aero squadron ; 
four field hospital companies; one ammunition train; one division 
field train, motorized, with two motor truck companies of thirty-three 
trucks each; a depot quartermaster’s department. Each of the nine 
infantry regiments included about two thousand men and had twenty- 
seven four-mule wagons and from 150 to 175 horses. Each cavalry 
regiment would have thirty-five four-mule wagons and from thirteen 
to fourteen hundred horses. A field battalion would have four bat¬ 
teries of six guns each. It was found that the hospital at Camp Wads¬ 
worth was to have a staff of forty doctors and eighty nurses, the most 
modern equipment, and one thousand beds. New York’s Twenty- 
second Regiment of Engineers, recognized as “a picked regiment in 
every way,” was to bring two or three airplanes, armored motor cars, 
and two or three large “tanks”—all equipment it had used on the 
Mexican border. By August 23, nearly one thousand soldiers were 
at Camp Wadsworth. 

102 M. P. A special body of soldiers, sent on in advance, was the 
Military Police, 102 M. P., three hundred strong, commanded by 
Major Kincaid. This selected group of men included many gradu¬ 
ates of Yale, Princeton, Columbia, and Harvard. These men were 
assigned headquarters in the Magnolia Street school building, which 
was also used for Red Cross rooms, and made a grand lark of their 
duties. One of them, Kai Swensen, wrote, after the war was over, 
a delightfully humorous account of their double life; so described 
because they alternated between service at Camp Wadsworth and in 
town. They also had the duty of policing the artillery range area in 
the fabulous “Dark Corner,” noted for “moonshine” whiskey, illicit 
cock fighting, and related activities. Swensen wrote almost lyrically 
of their camp near Campobello. The Military Police, as part of 
their training, made the most detailed and objective survey of Spar¬ 
tanburg ever undertaken. 


Preparations For War 


241 


Transfer of the In New York and Spartanburg alike popular clamor 
Twenty-Seventh arose f or the spectacle of 26,000 men swinging 
down Fifth Avenue to martial music and then, in a body, boarding a 
succession of trains which would swiftly bear them to Camp Wads¬ 
worth; where they would leave their trains and again parade before 
gaping multitudes to their new quarters. That such a scheme was 
utterly impractical—however strong its dramatic and sentimental ap¬ 
peal—was soon clear. Difficulties notwithstanding, General O’Ryan 
promised a farewell parade, stating, “I can assure the friends of the 
National Guardsmen, as well as the people of the State generally, 
that the demonstration will be a picture that will never fade from their 
memories.” 

Finally, August 29, 1917, came—the eve of departure. Flags and 
banners were everywhere. New York surpassed itself to “make the 
going away of the Guards the biggest thing in the way of a parade 
that the city has ever seen,” said the New York Herald-Tribune. A 
farewell banquet at the Biltmore Hotel to General O’Ryan and his 
staff was attended by five hundred guests. At sixteen armories or 
parks scattered over a wide area, groups of leading women of the 
city presided as hostesses, at dinners for the soldiers. On August 30, 
the Twenty-Seventh made the promised march the length of Fifth 
Avenue. 


CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE 


The Twenty-Seventh Division at Camp 
Wadsworth 

Settling The men of the Twenty-Seventh Division went South 
Into Camp ag f as t ag trains were available. Leaving Fifth Avenue 
and Van Cortlandt Park, they arrived at a small country station in 
the woods. The famed Twenty-Second Engineers with its elaborate 
equipment was the first regiment to arrive. Then followed the 
equally famous Seventh, popularly designated in New York as the 
“Silk Stocking Regiment.” It was one hundred and six years old. 
This regiment reached Spartanburg with 1,825 members, proud of 
having lost 178 of its men to the Plattsburg Officers’ Training 
School. Silk stockings notwithstanding, these men set cheerfully 
to work chopping down trees, laying off streets, and pitching their 
own tents. 

Day after day men poured in by the thousand. The camp pre¬ 
sented to observers a scene of infinite variety—lines of men march¬ 
ing from the Fair forest station to their assigned rectangles, and 
upon arrival pitching their tents; squads installing lights and spigots; 
cavalrymen, artillerymen, quartermaster’s motor trucks, spectators, 
all scurrying here and there. Within two weeks the New York 
Engineers were beautifying their camp so that it soon appeared 
more like a park than a camp. They moved trees from the woods, 
planted grass plots, gathered white stones with which they marked 
their company numbers, and even transplanted small evergreen trees 
to make hedges. 

Camp Life At once the soldiers began to gather pets. Within two 
weeks the 10,000 men in camp had dozens of pets of every sort— 
especially dogs of every known breed. The Forty-Second had a 
bear, which later was well-known in Spartanburg. Company mascots 
included roosters, pigs, goats, burros, mules, opossums, raccoons, 
and cats. One enterprising man bought a captured opossum—an 
animal new to him. He was so fascinated with the creature’s pouch 
that he put into it his gold watch. The startled animal, in frantic 
alarm, clawed the soldier’s face, causing him to turn loose the 
chain by which he was holding his new pet. Whereupon Brer 
’Possum plunged wildly across the camp and escaped into the nearby 
242 


The Twenty-Seventh Division at Camp Wadsworth 243 

woods, probably the first opossum in Spartanburg County to carry 
a timepiece. 

Within a few weeks the cavalrymen found that they were to be 
transformed into a machine gun unit. Sadly the First Cavalry made 
its last parade, and the men turned their horses over to the remount 
station. The following morning before three o’clock, about three 
hundred of these horses broke their corral and headed for their old 
picket line, two miles away, across the camp reservation. The 
thundering of hoofs awoke the cavalrymen and from their tent doors 
they saw their mounts approaching over the parade ground in 
,columns-of-fours formation, as if on parade. The horses rounded 
the headquarters and proceeded down the company street to their 
old picket line, where, after milling about for a few moments, they 
took their accustomed places. This procedure had aroused the 
whole regiment, and soon the men were dressed and about the job 
of welcoming, feeding and watering their beloved steeds, many of 
them bred in the cavalry service and as perfectly trained as their 
masters. 

As cold weather set in, the problem of fuel presented itself as 
serious. In the haste necessary to clear the camp, great piles of 
wood, brush, and stumps had been burned. Wistful thoughts now 
recalled these fiery sacrifices to temporary expediency, for the quar¬ 
termaster was buying wood from farmers all over the county, with 
the proviso that details of soldiers would cut and haul it. One 
farmer took a squad to his wood lot and designated certain trees 
which were not to be touched. “Si, si, Signor,” he was told. Not a 
man in the detail spoke English well enough to grasp the farmer’s 
instructions; and as a result the trees reserved for their value as 
lumber were the first to fall under the axes. City men nearly froze 
trying to make fires in the little camp stoves with poorly selected 
wood, often green, sobby, or wet. 

Dramatic Reporters roved through the camp invading the privacy 
Incidents Q f millionaires, celebrities, and men of affairs in search 
of “human interest” stories. They found a multi-millionaire using 
as his office a fly tent with a dirt floor, and for its sole furniture 
two camp chairs. That was Colonel Cornelius Vanderbilt. They 
were equally fascinated by the situation of young Cornelius Vander¬ 
bilt, who was a buck private in his father’s regiment, in a company 
of which his former chauffeur was captain. The Vanderbilt family 


244 


A History or Spartanburg County 


supplied the reporters with many stories. Mrs. Vanderbilt and her 
daughter Grace paid a visit to Colonel Vanderbilt and Cornelius, 
Jr., and lived in a private car on the railroad siding in a cotton field. 
In that car Grace celebrated her eighteenth birthday. A “Squaw 
Camp” of portable houses was established by some of the New 
York officers that they might have their families near them during 
their brief respite from possible death. In such quarters lived sev¬ 
eral families of railroad presidents, newspaper owners, New York 
business and professional men of substance. 

One New York woman provided a folk saga which, with such 
variations as may occur to the mind of the individual narrator, has 
been repeatedly told by the “old inhabitants” about the camp. The 
tale runs that this woman, determined to be as near her son as 
possible while he was in training at Camp Wadsworth, visited the 
camp, selected a house in the vicinity, knocked at the door, and an¬ 
nounced that she wished to rent the house. The owner, startled by 
so novel an idea, said the family had always lived there, and their 
people before them, and the house was not for rent. The lady in¬ 
sisted; money was no object. Some narrators report that she of¬ 
fered $500 a month for the house, others say $600, and one imagi¬ 
native soul insists she paid $1,000. Whatever the price, she got 
the house, with the stipulation that such improvements as she deemed 
necessary must be made at her own expense. The owners moved 
into a tenant house close by, where, unfortunately for their peace 
of mind and pride, they had to see their cherished home “magicked” 
before their very eyes into a residence adapted to the tastes of a 
sophisticated New Yorker. The hearts of the owners burned within 
them with resentment that what had been good enough for three 
generations of a good Spartanburg County family would not serve 
a rich Yankee for a few months. This tenant appeared in the fall, 
did her bit to make her son and his friends happy, and in May, 
when he was sent overseas, presented to the owners all the improve¬ 
ments she had placed in their house and returned to New York. 

The local Spartanburg papers kept reporters at Camp Wads¬ 
worth, as did most of the New York leading dailies. Every day 
produced its crop of stories. The New York World had thirty-eight 
employees in service at Camp Wadsworth, each of whom received 
from the paper each month a check covering the difference between 
his army pay check and his salary on the paper. 


The Twenty-Seventh Division at Camp Wadsworth 245 


The soldiers began to publish their own papers; Company A, 
Seventh Regiment, published Att-A-Boy every Saturday. Company 
B followed with The Bee Hive. Trench and Camp appeared Oc¬ 
tober 8, published at Columbia as the official paper of Camps Jack- 
son and Wadsworth. Later the Twenty-Seventh Division had its 
own official weekly paper called The Gas Attack, heralded as a re¬ 
habilitation of the Rio Grande Rattler, which these same men had 
published on the Mexican border. The first issue, with twenty pages 
and a colored cover, appeared in November. 

The Twenty-Second Engineers had a highly trained orchestra, 
for which Colonel Vanderbilt bought a piano. On October 2, 1917, 
this orchestra gave its first entertainment, a concert in “the red 
schoolhouse on the National Highway between the Camp and the 
city.” The camp had its first wedding October 18, with a colonel 
to give the bride in marriage and the colonel’s lady to act as dame 
of honor. The groom was a sergeant, and the bride traveled down 
from Asbury Park, New Jersey, to marry him. The chaplain used 
the ring ceremony, and the newly married couple passed from the 
chaplain’s hut under the crossed rifles of the groom’s company. 
The groom had a leave of absence, and the pair went to Asheville 
for their honeymoon. A year later an equal excitement was felt 
over the first christening in camp. Weddings had become common¬ 
place. 

Reorganization Such was life at Camp Wadsworth during the 
and Drill early months. Meanwhile the great machine which 

was the Twenty-Seventh Division was being constructed. Orders 
came from the War Department for a reorganization, to facilitate 
cooperation with French and British units. Hearts burned when 
old companies and regiments were broken up or done away with. 
A regiment would parade for the last time; officers and men would 
have a dinner, gifts and compliments would be exchanged, and the 
members would report to new assignments or adopt new numbers 
as their insignia. Visiting French officers appeared to direct bayonet 
drill; English officers supervised practice in trench and tank war¬ 
fare. These visitors bluntly warned the Americans, “You are going 
to kill or get killed. You must know your rifle and your bayonet.” 

The first World War trenches in America were constructed at 
Camp Wadsworth, and were first used on the night of November 
19, 1917, when “2,000 men marched into the labyrinth of trenches 


246 


A History or Spartanburg County 


under cover of darkness, there to remain for twelve hours.” Calis¬ 
thenics, drills, marches, cross-country runs, memory tests, lectures, 
first-aid instructions kept the men busy all day. By the end of Sep¬ 
tember more than 20,000 men were actually in camp, and every day 
was bringing in more. The quartermaster reported that the monthly 
bill was more than two million dollars, $600,000 for food alone. 

The Artillery In August 1917, Major Michel, representing the 
Range Southeastern Department of the United States 

Army as an artillery expert, inspected a proposed artillery range 
and pronounced it “a most satisfactory location, the character of 
the land being just such as we like to have for artillery work.” The 
tract selected extended over a mountainous area about seven miles 
long and from two to three miles wide along the outlying ridges of 
Hogback and Glassy mountains. It lay entirely in Greenville County, 
distant twenty-six miles from Spartanburg and two and a half miles 
from Landrum, the nearest railroad station. The topography was 
adapted to all sorts of artillery practice—range firing, barrage 
fire, or the moving of guns from point to point. 

Paul V. Moore and Baylis Earle arranged all the details prelimi¬ 
nary to occupation; and, September 24, fifty men of the Twenty- 
Second Engineers moved in, with ten big army trucks carrying sup¬ 
plies and tents. The next day the two thousand men who were the 
first to be trained began arriving. Along with them went newspaper 
reporters, who interviewed veterans of Manassas, the Wilderness, 
Chancellorsville, and Appomattox. They wrote of New York men 
who for the first time drank spring water from gourds; of the moun¬ 
taineers’ comment that soldiers wore blue uniforms and brass buttons 
and that these men in camp wearing butternut jeans were just work¬ 
men ; of the mountain cabin in which a New Yorker found, over the 
mantel, in close juxtaposition, an old-fashioned pistol and a gaudy 
framed motto, “Prepare to Meet Thy God.” The camp at once be¬ 
came an objective for sightseers from many miles around, and the 
roar of cannon and the whistling of shells became familiar sounds. 

Spartanburg The Red Cross, the Young Men’s and Young Women’s 
Hospitality Christian Associations, the City Federation of Women’s 
Clubs, the Country Club, the fraternal lodges, the churches, the col¬ 
leges, the Rotary Club, the Chamber of Commerce—all the city’s 
agencies worked wholeheartedly to extend hospitality to the men 
at Camp Wadsworth. Wofford dormitories housed the Reserve Of- 


The Twenty-Seventh Division at Camp Wadsworth 247 

fleers until the camp could provide them with quarters. The city 
raised a fund of $27,500 for War Camp Activities. 

A letter written by a New York woman for the New York Times 
and reprinted in the Herald of November 11, 1917, depicted vividly 
some phases of the enterprise, as seen through a woman’s eyes. She 
wrote of the crowded conditions; the dazed, bewildered housekeepers, 
overrun with would-be paying guests and distracted by demoralized 
servants; of block-long lines of soldiers waiting their turn to get 
to the soda fountains; of drug stores taking in $1,200 a night and 
having to restock daily from New York and Atlanta; of the excellence 
and insufficiency of the food; of the hospitality of local housekeepers 
whose best hand-embroidered bed linen was not withheld from their 
country’s defenders or their womenfolk; of the churches with doors 
and grounds and kitchens wide open to the guests; of the bridge 
games, country club parties, and Saturday night dances for the sol¬ 
diers. “When the military band strikes up ‘Over There,’ and all the 
soldiers sing as they dance, the sight is one never to be forgotten,” 
the letter ran; and its concluding passage read: 

If it were not for the heavy cloud of war, time in Spartanburg 
would pass very pleasantly. It may be, however, that life becomes 
more precious when at stake. The men and women feel that they 
would make the most of this crowded hour of glorious life, so they 
seize each minute when they can be together. When the soldiers 
are at work in their all-day drills or trench digging, the women 
can sometimes motor out and watch them do their bit with en¬ 
thusiasm. As one Spartan lady remarked: “We know now as 
eye-witnesses that New York has given her best.” 

The imagination of the people of Spartanburg had not prepared 
them for the numbers or the requirements of the soldiers’ relatives. 
Houses and rooms were not sufficient to supply the demand. The 
school enrollment showed a twenty per cent increase. It appeared 
that citizens and soldiers alike sought refuge from reflection by filling 
every moment not assigned to duty with organized recreation. Par¬ 
ties, dances, barbecues, watermelon cuttings, banquets, concerts, old 
fiddlers’ conventions, community singings, spirituals sung by Negroes, 
plays, and musical shows in which soldiers and townspeople co¬ 
operated, concerts by the military bands, parades, teas—always some¬ 
thing was doing somewhere. 

The Spartanburg County Fair Association and the Community 
Fair Association responded to the stimulus of prospective visitors 


248 


A History or Spartanburg County 


from another State. Chesnee, Landrum, Wellford, Reidville, and 
Poplar Springs all held community fairs and also entered their ex¬ 
hibits at the county fair which was held October 30-31 and Novem¬ 
ber 1-3, 1917. Pauline held a Dahlia Show of such excellence that 
a permanent Dahlia Club grew out of it. Saxon, being so close to 
Camp Wadsworth, enjoyed an especially good patronage for its com¬ 
munity fair. 

Camp But Camp Wadsworth presented much more interesting 

Hospitality exhibits to Spartans than anything they could offer in 
return. The Converse College girls, escorted in a body through the 
underground trenches and dug-outs, pronounced the experience 
“thrilling.” Band concerts, parades, drills, and teas drew hundreds 
of civilians to camp as spectators every day the weather permitted. 
Musical and drama-loving Spartans reveled in the contributions made 
to their pleasure by the soldiers’ amateur theatricals and by the mili¬ 
tary bands and individual musicians. Soon after the camp was or¬ 
ganized, General O’Ryan issued a special order permitting camp bands 
and orchestras to participate in civic programs when invited. Singers 
gave their services to the local church choirs; and many of them 
were men of exceptional talent and professional status in New York. 

The Over There Club, a social organization composed of enlisted 
men who were former students of Yale, Harvard, and Columbia uni¬ 
versities, presented a musical comedy entitled Swat the Spies, which 
fascinated Spartans. The play was written by Lawton Campbell, 
formerly of the Princeton Triangle Club. His assistant, L. P. Hol¬ 
lander, who wrote the lyrics and arranged the musical numbers, had 
been interested in dramatics at Exeter and had belonged to the Har¬ 
vard Dramatic Club. The scene of the play was laid in the Cleveland 
Hotel dining room, and the intricate plot centered around some 
papers which a German spy obtained from a general at Camp Wads¬ 
worth, who was under heavy financial obligations to the German. 
Private Cornelius Vanderbilt, Jr., played the leading role. 

Christmas at All sorts of plans were proposed for the celebra- 

Camp Wadsworth t j on Christmas. Spartanburg had been im¬ 
pressed by the lavish flow of money, and the many stories of wealthy 
New Yorkers and their extravagant demands. That there was an¬ 
other side to the picture was brought home to the readers of the 
Herald, December 16, 1917, by a letter to the editor signed “One of 
the Northern Visitors.” This letter pointed out that there were many 


The Twenty-Seventh Division at Camp Wadsworth 249 

very poor men at Camp Wadsworth who could not spend even the 
quarter it cost to get to town, and who were forced to make long 
marches in the snow, gloveless, because of their poverty. Character¬ 
izing the proposal to spend $2,000 on a Christmas pageant for the men 
at Camp Wadsworth as merely “a personal display for a few people,” 
she demanded tartly: 

Is this the spirit of Christmas? Is this what we want Christ¬ 
mas to mean to 40,000 men, not children? What do they care 
about floats and expensive decorations, while their hearts are back 
home thinking of little Susie’s stocking? . . . The men in the 
camp need warm things. There are many men there too poor 
to receive gifts from home, men the families of whom will pass a 
sad Christmas, not just because of loneliness, but because money 
is scarce. Santa Claus will not come down many a chimney for a 
little child back home, while here at Camp Wadsworth a wonder¬ 
fully planned pageant will take place. 

The weather prevented a pageant; the roads were slushy with 
half-melted snow, and it was bitter cold. Lighted Christmas trees 
and carols and concerts cheered town and camp. Northerners were 
shocked by the typically Southern celebration of Christmas with fire¬ 
works—and Spartans were shocked to learn that such a mode of cele¬ 
bration was not universal. The 105th Regiment Infantry had a 
“Regimental Gala Night” in the Harris Theatre, December 24, ar¬ 
rangements for which were made by men of influential theater con¬ 
nections and experience, who gave New Yorkers and Spartans an 
evening of New York vaudeville. 

Hardships and Camp morale was high. The discipline was se- 

Disappomtments ve re, but the men found it interesting. Many 
among them had seen service overseas and could therefore help 
others visualize what was ahead of them. Numbers of the experi¬ 
enced French and British officers serving as instructors were maimed, 
and the sight of their heroic bearing challenged similar courage in 
the men. 

So sensational were the rumors in circulation as to the suffering in 
camp that Chief of Staff Colonel H. H. Bandholtz made, December 
22, 1917, an official statement to the press concerning camp health 
conditions. A New York paper had published a story that six men 
had frozen to death in the trenches at Camp Wadsworth. Colonel 
Bandholtz stated that not even one death had occurred from trench 


250 


A History of Spartanburg County 


service, and that only eleven deaths had occurred among the 31,000 
men at Camp Wadsworth during the entire four months of its opera¬ 
tion. 

Winter had set in early and was cold, rainy, and snowy. Snow 
fell December 12, much earlier than usual in this section. The sol¬ 
diers really suffered extreme discomfort—and so did Spartans. There 
was a coal shortage. The hastily built roads did not stand up well 
under the stress of bad weather and constant heavy hauling over 
them. Townspeople and soldiers were equally embittered by the 
difficulties of transportation between camp and city. The electric 
interurban company was confronted with a problem impossible of 
immediate solution in the sudden demand for increased facilities in 
three camp towns—Greenville, Charlotte, and Spartanburg. Private 
taxi fares were exorbitant. 

The soldiers, if they did manage to get into Spartanburg, were 
often doomed to disappointment in their search for pleasure. There 
were not enough picture shows, lodge rooms, soldiers’ clubs, restau¬ 
rants, ice cream parlors, in the town to accommodate them all. Worse 
still, few of the available amusements satisfied the cravings of sophis¬ 
ticated men used to the gaieties of New York. 

Jarring notes crept in, but not enough of them to destroy the har¬ 
mony. Although everybody had a great deal more money than be¬ 
fore, it soon began to appear that everything cost a great deal more 
too, and there were complaints of extortion. Men and women used 
to New York often found Spartanburg annoyingly “small town”— 
and some Spartans confronted with this attitude manifested peevish 
resentment. Not everybody fell in gracefully with the sugar allow¬ 
ancing, the meatless days, and the wheatless days requested by Food 
Administrator Hoover. One lively old lady voiced her disgust at 
the parade made of it all. She said that during the sixties people 
were really driven to desperate makeshifts—parched potatoes and 
oats for coffee, sorghum or honey for all sweetening, burned corn¬ 
cobs for soda, wheat flour only on Sundays. Then good manners 
required that makeshifts be ignored and forbade any unpleasant com¬ 
ment on the food. But now she found every meal made hideous by 
calculations of calories and citations from the Hoover Card as to 
what one must eat or refrain from eating. 

Difficult situations grew out of conflict between the rigid require¬ 
ments of military etiquette and civilian ignorance of its details; and 


The Twenty-Seventh Division at Camp Wadsworth 251 

sometimes democratic scorn of its irritating inhibitions. The soldiers 
chafed when crowds failed to remove their hats on proper occasions, 
and some of them attributed such failure to “Unreconstructed Reb 
cussedness” instead of to ignorance of military conventions. The 
Bank of Spartanburg distributed a helpful pamphlet showing the sig¬ 
nificance of military etiquette and insignia—bars, stripes, chevrons, 
hat cords; the crossed sabres of the cavalry; the crossed rifles of the 
infantry; the crossed guns of the artillery; the wings and serpent of 
the medical corps; and so on. Eventually even little boys and girls 
in Spartanburg could glance at a soldier’s uniform and determine his 
exact status, and few people failed on the proper occasions to remove 
hats or stand at attention. 

In November General O’Ryan’s continued absence from camp 
occasioned surmises and comments. When he reappeared December 
6 and disclosed that he and Colonel B'andholtz had been in Europe 
inspecting the European war front and conferring with General Per¬ 
shing, excitement rose high; for the men anticipated orders to move 
any day. During November the camp had visits from Governor 
Whitman and Senator Wadsworth of New York and Governor Man¬ 
ning of South Carolina—visits which entailed many parades, dinners, 
banquets, reviews, and speeches; and heightened the men’s eagerness 
to go “Over There.” 

Not until April was this desire satisfied; and in the interval drill 
and discipline were increasingly rigorous. So closely guarded were 
all plans that before Spartans realized it, the Twenty-Seventh Di¬ 
vision was gone. A committee of citizens followed General O’Ryan 
to New York and presented to him and the division, on behalf of 
the city of Spartanburg, a silver bowl. 


CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR 


The Year 1918 

New Conditions at The departure of the Twenty-Seventh did not 
Camp Wadsworth Rave Camp Wadsworth depleted, because as 
fast as soldiers went away others came in to replace them. An Of¬ 
ficers’ Training School was established. Changes and additions were 
being made at the camp all the time. The Spartanburg City Council, 
June 30, executed an extension of the lease to June 30, 1919. 

Brigadier General Guy Carleton succeeded O’Ryan as camp 
commander. Beginning in January he had the supervising, training, 
and reorganizing of seventeen “Pioneer” regiments of infantry, and 
three anti-aircraft machine gun battalions. He was charged with 
the organization and training of a proposed Slavic Legion, to be 
made up of “exiles” who wished to volunteer for service with the 
Allies. Congress authorized this step July 9, 1918. Ignace Paderew¬ 
ski was foremost among its advocates. Officers for the Slavic 
Legion had to be bilingual, and its enrollment was expected to be 
from 50,000 to 100,000. It never became really large, but was in 
existence when the war ended. General Carleton directed an ex¬ 
cellent officers’ training school at Camp Wadsworth. In a single 
day this general administered the oath of allegiance to 2,700 foreign- 
born soldiers, “an incident without precedent in the history of any 
country,” said the American Army Gazette. 

“Pioneer" Camp Wadsworth was described in the Gazette as 
Regiments “the me Rj n g pot 0 f the army in more ways than one.” 
Before the departure of the Twenty-Seventh, draftees began pouring 
in not only from New York but from all sections of the United 
States for preliminary examination and assignment. The Twenty- 
Seventh Division left seven skeleton regiments of New York in¬ 
fantry at Camp Wadsworth and these were built up into “Pioneer” 
regiments, draftees mostly from New York filling their depleted 
ranks. Six other regiments of the National Guard—three from 
Massachusetts, and one each from Vermont, Maine, and Connecticut, 
were known as Pioneer infantry. Three new regiments were or¬ 
ganized and trained, made up entirely — except for officers — of 
drafted men. These sixteen units were used for replacement, or 
completion of bodies getting ready to go overseas. 

252 


The Year 1918 


253 


The Sixth The Sixth Division of the Regular Army was brought 
Division from Camp McClellan in Alabama for recruiting and 
intensive training and remained at Camp Wadsworth from May 10 
to June 23, 1918, going from here to ports of embarkation for France. 
While at Camp Wadsworth this Division received additions of men 
from almost every State in the Union, and probably became even 
more genuinely cosmopolitan than the Forty-Second, the famed Rain¬ 
bow Division. It contained a number of South Carolinians, between 
forty and fifty of them from Spartanburg County. 

Contrasts The three divisions trained here differed in their ex¬ 
periences. The Twenty-Seventh was one of the most active in 
the World War, winning glory on the Hindenburg Line; the Sixth 
spent forty days in the so-called “quiet sectors” in France, without 
participating at all in front line engagements; and the end of the war 
found the Ninety-Sixth still in training at Camp Wadsworth, hop¬ 
ing to be ordered over at any time. The Twenty-Seventh was made 
up of volunteers from the National Guard; the Sixth had a nucleus 
of Regular Army men, and was completed with drafted men; the 
Ninety-Sixth was made up, except for officers and a few selected 
men from the National Guard, of draftees. 

Beginning in July 1918, the greatest variety of material received 
by any camp streamed into Camp Wadsworth. Besides the first 
volunteers for the Slavic Legion, there were one hundred interned 
German prisoners—who were confined within a triple stockade of 
ten-foot pine poles heavily laced with barbed wire. British and 
French officers came over to train the men, and their uniforms 
added vivid color to the camp picture. There were full-blooded 
Cherokee Indians, and many Negroes. In the general inixup, North, 
South, East, and West were all represented. College graduates 
bunked with illiterates from the coal mines and mountains; and all 
of them found the experiment exhilarating. Into the melting pot 
they poured—thousands of Negroes from the Southern cottonfields; 
hundreds of laborers from the North and West who spoke no Eng¬ 
lish, “Maine Heavies”—so-called because they had been in the heavy 
artillery—welcoming into their ranks the draftees from Minnesota; 
the historic Fifth Massachusetts National Guard, “whose very names 
would be a passport into any social circle,” according to the Herald. 
The Minnesota men drew attention everywhere for their superb 
physiques—not one under six feet tall, by popular report, and all 


254 


A History of Spartanburg County 


as straight as arrows. There were about 800 South Carolinians, the 
only natives of the State to train for any length of time at Camp 
Wadsworth. Large detachments came from North Carolina, Ten¬ 
nessee, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Missouri, and Texas. 
Between July 25 and August 12, 25,000 men departed to fill gaps 
elsewhere and as many new men replaced them. During that period 
the camp population probably did not at any time fall below 40,000. 
With all this coming and going, War Department officials highly 
commended the morale of Camp Wadsworth and made the state¬ 
ment, in October 1918, that there had been “fewer cases of deser¬ 
tion and fewer men absent without leave than in any other camp.” 

The constant coming and going created administrative problems 
for the medical, personnel, insurance, and quartermaster’s depart¬ 
ments. Men arrived by the thousands in a day. A train would 
roll into the Fairforest siding, the men would step from it, pile into 
army trucks, and ride to camp. There everything must be in readi¬ 
ness for them—new kits, tents set up, cots in position, hot showers, 
and hot meals. They were held in quarantine ten days or two weeks, 
and were subjected to a rigid medical examination. Then they were 
fed into the army’s hopper. An average of nearly 20 per cent 
failed to measure up to physical requirements and were sent home. 
The others began systematic training—drills, calisthenics, marches. 
Within two or three weeks they could spend eight hours a day at 
hard drill. It was estimated that two months thus spent — with 
trench work, bayonet practice, and sham engagements—would al¬ 
most transform a draftee into a seasoned veteran. 

The camp was constantly being improved. A library with 6,000 
users was in full operation in July. There had been a coal shortage 
in the winter; now there was an ice shortage, for the local factories 
could not make enough ice to supply the demand. Guards of soldiers 
had to protect wagons delivering ice to the quartermaster or hospital. 
The outcome was that the camp had to build its own plant. The 
Federal Government expended $100,000 in insuring a water supply 
to provide for possible emergency. The Government, City, and 
County cooperated in repaving and improving the highways. 


A Training 
School for Nurses 


Of all the changes and improvements at Camp 
Wadsworth, none was a greater source of pride 
than the Training School for Army Nurses, which was the first to be 
established in the United States. For it a two-story building was 


The: Ye:ar 1918 


255 


erected with the most modern equipment obtainable. The teachers 
were graduates of the best schools in the country, and the lecturers 
were selected from among outstanding physicians and surgeons. The 
projected course required three years, and the Surgeon General’s 
office selected the students by the application of very rigid require¬ 
ments as to qualifications. This school opened July 24, 1918, with 
thirty-four students from sixteen States. 

Entertainment Suitable entertainment for the thousands of sol¬ 
diers was always an unsolvable problem. Local efforts were earnest, 
but inadequate; volunteer entertainers traveled from camp to camp 
doing their best; the Y. M. C. A., the War Camp Community Ser¬ 
vice, and the Canteen Service gave concerts and weekly old-time 
parties. Dances were given every Saturday night at any available 
place, including Rock Cliff, which an organization of enlisted men 
leased and operated as a club house in which they could disport 
themselves at pleasure and reciprocate hospitalities. There were 
picture shows and vaudeville at the local theaters, but there was 
much complaint of them by the Commission on Training Camp Ac¬ 
tivities. There was a Hostess House in the heart of the camp with 
hostesses and a cafeteria, and sometimes on Sundays the guests 
numbered a thousand or more. 

Plans for the To clear the way for receiving the men who were 
Ninety-Sixth to be drafted in October, the population of Camp 

Division Wadsworth was, during September, reduced to the 

small number of between 12,000 and 13,000 men. General Carleton 
received, October 9, his commission to organize and train the Ninety- 
Sixth Division for service overseas. Brigadier General William 
Wilson succeeded him in command of the Provisional Depot. This 
command was reduced to five of the Pioneer Infantry regiments, 
one anti-aircraft machine gun battalion, and an artillery corps park. 
For the Ninety-Sixth, two new regiments were organized by Sep¬ 
tember 24, the 381st and 382nd Infantry, for which officers were 
to be sent back from France. Plans were matured for building the 
new division to full strength as fast as draftees could be sent in. 
New York alone was to send 12,000 additional men, 5,000 for the 
Provisional Depot forces and 7,000 for the Ninety-Sixth, immedi¬ 
ately after the draft of October 7. 

Influenza Then came the epidemic of Spanish influenza, which 
actually took a heavier toll of American lives than did the World 


256 


A History of Spartanburg County 


War. Camp Wadsworth’s exceptionally good hospital facilities en¬ 
abled it to show a better than average record in dealing with the 
epidemic; but things were bad enough, not alone in camp but also 
in the city and county. Nation-wide panic and quarantine regula¬ 
tions checked the expected inflow of draftees, so that the beginning 
of November found Camp Wadsworth with everything in readiness 
for 45,000 men who had been drafted and assigned to Camp Wads¬ 
worth, but with only 15,000 in camp. During early September 
there was diphtheria in Spartanburg, and Camp Wadsworth was 
rigidly quarantined. Up to October the daily bulletins of the camp 
reported its freedom from influenza. Even as late as October 14 
the base hospital report stated that the “mild form of influenza 
prevalent for two weeks” was “not of the Spanish type.” On that 
date, however, 600 cases of influenza were reported; and on October 
13, nine deaths occurred. 

The city and county suffered much more severely than the camp, 
and a rigid quarantine was enforced. On October 18 the announce¬ 
ment was made that Camp Wadsworth was “free of flu.” There were 
that day 66 new cases in the town, and emergency hospitalization was 
being arranged for. Every day brought its record of new cases and 
of deaths. No soldiers were seen in Spartanburg except the Military 
Police. By November 6 the epidemic in Spartanburg was believed 
to be over. The quarantine was lifted that day. The emergency 
hospital service was to be closed November 9. Sunday School and 
church services were resumed November 10, and the public school 
exercises November 11. 

New* of To add to the general cheer caused by this situation, 

Victory news came from France of the glorious part played 

by the Twenty-Seventh and Thirtieth Divisions and of the prospects 
for peace. The men at Camp Wadsworth received the news with 
elation; but the moral certainty that now they would not be sent 
overseas made drill and camp routine distasteful. 

At 2 a. m., November 11, 1918, news came by telephone of the 
signing of the armistice; at 2:46 the Associated Press wire to the 
Herald confirmed the news. Mayor Floyd was immediately noti¬ 
fied, and communicated with the Southern Railway train dispatcher 
and the fire department. At once, it seemed, every train bell, whistle, 
siren, and mill whistle in town burst into sound. By three o’clock 
the streets were thronged. Mayor Floyd in person rode a switch 














Camp Wadsworth—Spring, 1918 



The Mounted Police Headed For Duty 
at the Artillery Range 



Camp Wadsworth—Winter, 1918 







The Year 1918 


257 


engine up and down the tracks with his hand on the whistle. Bon¬ 
fires, parades, songs, flags, were everywhere. Kaiser Bill was burned 
in effigy on Morgan Square. 

At half past four on the afternoon of November 15, a more 
orderly and solemn county-wide thanksgiving service was held in 
the Converse College auditorium. In all these celebrations the Six¬ 
tieth Pioneer band was permitted to lead the parade; but no other 
soldiers were allowed to join in. To their intense chagrin, the stu¬ 
dents of Wofford College, who had, October 1, 1918, with most im¬ 
pressive ceremonies, been mustered into the United States Army 
as a Students’ Army Training Corps, were governed by General 
Carleton’s ruling that soldiers could not join in the celebrations. 
On December 9 the Wofford students were demobilized, and because 
of the influenza epidemic and the necessity for reorganization, Wof¬ 
ford College suspended its exercises until January 1, 1919, when 
it was reopened “on a pre-war basis.” 

The Gloom of the The second winter at Camp Wadsworth p re- 

Second Winter sented an utter contrast to the first. After 

news of the armistice, the men at Camp Wadsworth were chiefly 
interested in getting home in time to spend Christmas with their fam¬ 
ilies, and were preoccupied with anxiety as to their jobs and business 
connections. 

Leading citizens made unsuccessful efforts to induce the War 
Department to retain Camp Wadsworth as a permanent army post. 
Instructions were issued to demobilize the men at Camp Wadsworth 
as fast as practicable, but to keep the camp in readiness for the re¬ 
ception of men from overseas who might be brought here for de¬ 
mobilization. Spartanburg hoped that the Twenty-Seventh Division 
would return to their old training grounds. This was not to be. 

On November 25 came the announcement that Camp Wads¬ 
worth was one of the seven camps to be used for the care of con¬ 
valescent soldiers; and Captain Robert A. Anderson of the Fifth 
Pioneer Infantry was ordered to organize there an Overseas Con¬ 
valescent Detachment. The first members—twenty-five wounded 
soldiers—arrived November 28, and were placed in the base hos¬ 
pital. Instructions were issued to retain at Camp Wadsworth ac¬ 
commodations for 15,000 men and to demobilize the troops already 
there as rapidly as conditions permitted. The 100 German prisoners, 
after eight months there, were sent to Fort McPherson, Georgia. 


258 


A History of Spartanburg County 


The building program was checked. Men departed every day by 
the hundreds—even on some days by the thousands. Home for 
Christmas was their longing cry. 

Last Days of On January 7, the few hundred men of the 

Camp Wadsworth Ninety-Sixth Division not demobilized were 
formally transferred to the Second Development Battery, and the 
Ninety-Sixth passed into history. General Carleton was relieved 
of the command of Camp Wadsworth, January 15, and ordered to 
report with his chief of staff, Colonel J. F. Gohn, to Camp Kearney, 
California. Brigadier General Wilson succeeded to the post of 
camp commander. He had come with the Twenty-Seventh and had 
helped set up Camp Wadsworth; now he was expected to close it. 
An order dated February 3 provided for the demobilization of all 
units except the base hospital and the remount station. 

The remount station was soon abolished also. Auction sales were 
held to dispose of the horses and mules. Spartanburg farmers and 
business organizations bought many of these animals at the auctions 
held at frequent intervals, but wholesale dealers from Atlanta and 
elsewhere got most of them at very low prices. The last 1,500 were 
shipped by the carload to Camp Lee in July. 

On February 25, General Wilson underwent an operation at 
the base hospital and the duties of camp commander fell on Colonel 
Bates of the Regular Army, who closed official headquarters, March 
25, 1919. With this action Camp Wadsworth passed into history. 


CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE 

Demobilizations and Memories 


The 27th and On March 25, 1919, when Camp Wadsworth was 
30th Divisions officially closed, the Twenty-Seventh Division, for 
which it was created, was making its victory parade down Fifth 
Avenue; and on that same day units of the Thirtieth Division in 
which many of Spartanburg’s men served were arriving at Charles¬ 
ton, South Carolina. Attending the parade of the Twenty-Seventh 
as official guests were Governor Robert A. Cooper, Mayor John 
Floyd, the directors of the Spartanburg Chamber of Commerce, and 
other Spartans. They had seats in the reviewing stand with Mayor 
John F. Hylan and Governor Alfred Smith. General O’Ryan and 
his staff and Governor Smith were urged in turn to be guests of 
South Carolina at the home-coming of the Thirtieth, March 31, but 
the mustering out of the Twenty-Seventh prevented their absence 
from New York on that date. 

The Twenty-Seventh and the Thirtieth had been known overseas 
as The Blue and the Gray, forming together the Second Army Corps 
in France, and sharing the glory of shattering the Hindenburg Line. 
In a letter to General Lewis on the record of the Thirtieth, at the 
end of a review, January 21, 1919, General Pershing said, after sum¬ 
ming up its activities with warm commendations: “But its special 
glory will always be the honor you won by breaking the Hindenburg 
Line on September 29th. Such a record is one of which we are all 
proud.” Within the week, Senator James Wadsworth of New 
York, in a speech on the floor of the Senate, describing the work 
of the Twenty-Seventh and Thirtieth in France said: “They stag¬ 
gered and shattered the strongest German offensive position in 
France, which resulted in crumpling that whole portion of the Ger¬ 
man line.” 

The Twenty-Seventh was essentially a New York division and 
there was never serious question as to where it should disembark 
and parade. It was different with the Thirtieth, which was made 
up of men from both Carolinas and Tennessee. Its men had sev¬ 
eral parades—none of the entire division. The South Carolina men 
paraded in Columbia, South Carolina, March 31. 

The Hampton Guards Scores of citizens hastened to Columbia to 
Back Home greet the Thirtieth. A streaming headline in 

the Herald, March 29, proclaimed the arrival in Charleston of the 

259 


260 


A History of Spartanburg County 


Hampton Guards: DEBARKED, DELOUSED, DELIGHTED. 
With these words Charles Calvert, a son of Spartanburg, began his 
bubbling account, which described the joy of the returned heroes, 
ready, with their uniforms pressed, for the grand parade and then 
for Home. Two significant items shared front-page interest with 
Calvert’s story: A list of the men of Company F who had died in 
France, and a portrait. The list included the following Spartans: 
Leroy Turney, who lived just below Arkwright on Roebuck, R.F.D.; 
Levi Butler, Tryon, N. C.; Smith J. Harvey, Pacolet; Youman Z. 
Weeks, Orangeburg. Weeks, who once lived in Spartanburg, was 
awarded the Distinguished Service Cross. The portrait was that of 
Gary Evans Foster. 

Gary Evans Spartanburg County was bursting with pride that 

Foster her Hampton Guards had in it one of the outstand¬ 

ing soldiers of the war. When he joined the Hampton Guards he 
was merely one of the 90,000 inhabitants of the county. True, he 
was no mere nobody—his great-great-grandfather, William Foster of 
Virginia, had fought in the Revolution and afterwards fought In¬ 
dians with Boone in Kentucky, moving later to Spartanburg District 
to live. His great-grandfather served in the War of 1812. His 
grandfather, William H. Foster, served throughout the War Be¬ 
tween the States. His father, William J. Foster, was one of John 
Gary Evans’ campaign managers in his gubernatorial campaign, and 
when a son was born to the Fosters on November 6, 1894, the night 
when election returns showed Evans’s election, Foster named that 
son Gary Evans Foster. A few years later, when former Governor 
Evans returned to Spartanburg to live, W. J. Foster took his name¬ 
sake to see him. According to the style of the period the little fel¬ 
low had on a dress with kilted skirt. It was the former governor’s 
proud privilege, as he often boasted after his namesake rose to fame, 
to put Gary Evans Foster into breeches, buying for him the hand¬ 
somest suit to be found in Spartanburg. 

Young Foster lost his father when he was seventeen years old, 
and grew up on his mother’s farm near Inman. His education, be¬ 
sides what he acquired for himself, was received in the Victor 
School, three miles from New Prospect, and in a three months’ 
course of study in Spartanburg as a telegrapher. He joined the 
Hampton Guards June 22, 1916, served with this Company on the 
Mexican border, and went with it overseas. 


Demobilizations and Memories 


261 


A letter from Gary Foster to his family was published in the 
Herald of July 4, 1918, in which he said: “You know how you used 
to listen to Grandpa telling tales about the other war. Grandpa’s 
tales are nothing to what I will have to tell you when I get back.” 
He got back, and was interviewed in Columbia, South Carolina, 
March 29, 1919, by Charles Calvert, who—with the aid of Lieutenant 
James Schwing—wormed out of Foster an account of the incident 
which won for him a place on General Pershing’s list of the hundred 
soldiers in the World War, and many medals and decorations. Prod¬ 
ded by Calvert he gave this description of his exploit: 

I was about a hundred yards ahead of the company when I 
ran across a machine gun nest down in a ditch, which looked like 
an abandoned road. I had my rifle with me and told them to 
come on out and be captured. I think I killed three or four of 
the Germans, and the rest just came on out with their hands up 
crying Kamerad and some other German talk that I couldn’t 
understand. I sent the prisoners on to the back of the lines and 
turned them over to the officials. That is all there is to it. 

The official record credited Foster with killing three Germans and 
capturing twenty-five, single-handed. This occurred October 8, and 
Foster was detailed to an officers’ training school at La Valbon, 
France, October 12, 1918. He left it about the middle of February 
to return home. He later refused a lieutenant’s commission in the 
Reserve Corps because he wished to retain his freedom and had no 
taste for military life in itself. 

At the time, and always subsequently, Gary Evans Foster re¬ 
fused to play the hero. He came home and was persuaded to enter 
Qemson College, but found the discipline irksome, the military 
features—for a man who had served in the American Expeditionary 
Forces as a bayonet instructor and a sergeant—farcical; so that, 
after six months at Qemson he went home to the farm. In 1922 
he married Susie Trout of Fingerville. Shortly afterward he was 
induced to take a Civil Service examination for an appointment in 
the Spartanburg post office and has been ever since a valued member 
of the staff, having charge of the rural carriers. Twenty years after 
the end of the World War he told an interviewer: “I did no more 
or less than any other soldier would have done under similar cir¬ 
cumstances, and in my opinion no man is a hero for having per¬ 
formed his duty.” 


262 


A History of Spartanburg County 


James When the Hampton Guards left Spartanburg, James 

Schwing Schwing, who had belonged to the company eleven 

years, was first lieutenant. After arrival in France he was detailed 
to an officers’ training school from which he returned October 6. 
On October 8, Lieutenant Schwing, with two other men, attacked 
a German machine gun post and broke it up. For this action Gen¬ 
eral Pershing decorated him with the Distinguished Service Cross. 
He was transferred, October 15, to command Headquarters Com¬ 
pany and was seriously wounded in an engagement October 17, so 
that he was in a hospital seven weeks. 

Lieutenant Schwing was the only Spartanburg officer who com¬ 
manded Company F overseas, and he shared with Gary Foster the 
honors of the return. Captain Joseph Lawlor, of New Jersey, was 
in command of the company after November 16, but went to his 
own home after demobilization. Later he paid a visit to Spartan¬ 
burg and participated in the preparation of a valuable history of 
Company F. 

A Home-Folksy The Hampton Guards left France on the S. S. 
D,nner Mercury, March 15, and debarked at Charleston, 

S. C., March 27. They received a joyous welcome and lavish hospital¬ 
ity before proceeding to Camp Jackson at Columbia, where they were 
to be demobilized. There, March 28, they were for the last time 
deloused. The next day Company F had its final dinner, a lavish 
one, and thoroughly enjoyed by all the men, for there was a fund 
of $800 earmarked for food. The men had a bountiful and informal 
banquet, shared by many of their relatives who had gone to Co¬ 
lumbia to greet them. At this home-folksy meal they let them¬ 
selves gloat. They boasted that they had won a prize for being the 
best drilled company in their battalion, having scored 39 points, 
while Greenville, in second place, scored 21. The Second Battalion, 
commanded by Major Cecil Wyche, originally of Company F, had 
led all in the 118th Infantry. The 118th Infantry had won honors 
over all others in the division. They promised to show the public 
a few stunts in drilling. 

Lieutenant Schwing had been in practical command during ac¬ 
tive fighting. He boasted of Company F that they were hard fighters 
and hard workers and were not afraid of the devil himself. They 
were in the thick of the hardest battles of the entire war and not 
once did the commanding officers hear a single word of complaint, 


Demobilizations and Memories 


263 


even when the men were ordered over the top without breakfast. 
They slept in every barn in France, and there was not one serious 
breach of discipline. Some of them drank too much red wine, and 
therefore dug many holes and refilled them. 

The men told the home folks that the fighting strength of the 
company was not at any one time more than 160 men, yet that it 
had an official record of having captured 576 Germans, including 
eight officers. After its part in the actions of September, its fighting 
strength fell to 29, because of casualties. When decorations and 
citations were considered, Company F led all the rest, for it had 
a Congressional Medal of Honor—one of the six won by South 
Carolinians—and one officer and five enlisted men had been cited in 
Division General Orders for meritorious conduct. 

Nothing better exemplifies what a melting-pot the American Ex¬ 
peditionary Force was than an analysis of the roster of Company F 
as of March 6, 1919, when it was ready to embark for home. It 
carried the names of 229 men. Of these, 46 were Spartans and 69 
were from other towns in South Carolina. The company still re¬ 
garded itself as the Hampton Guards, even though nearly half the 
men in it were from 25 other States. Tennessee furnished 22 of 
these men; Minnesota and Iowa, 11 each; Georgia, 8; Pennsylvania, 
Ohio, Texas, had 5 each; North Carolina, 4; South Dakota, New 
York, Illinois, Alabama, Missouri, Virginia, had 3 each; New Jersey, 
Louisiana, Arkansas, West Virginia, Kentucky, Mississippi, 2 each; 
and Oklahoma, Vermont, Colorado, Massachusetts, Wisconsin, 1 
each. Of the 90 men who left Spartanburg with the Hampton 
Guards 75 per cent, according to estimates of some members of the 
company, won commissions in the course of the war. 

Spartanburg’s On March 31, 9,000 men of the Thirtieth Di- 

Welcome to Her vision paraded in Columbia, and Gary Evans 
Own Boy* Foster of Company F sat in the reviewing 

stand. Immediately afterward the mustering out began, April 2, 
1919. Company F went home.in two special cars attached to the 
Carolina Special. The entire population welcomed them. Sixty 
Confederate Veterans of Camp Joseph Walker formed a guard of 
honor. There was no parade, for each soldier was seized upon by 
his family or sweetheart and Mayor Floyd led the rejoicing throng 
to the Soldiers’ Club, which was headquarters for an all-day recep¬ 
tion. The men were guests for lunch at the Tri-Color Tea Room 


264 


A History of Spartanburg County 


of the Church of the Advent. On this occasion the Reverend W. 
H. K. Pendleton and Colonel T. J. Moore made speeches of wel¬ 
come. After the luncheon there was dancing at the Soldiers’ Club; 
and during the afternoon Mrs. Fred Robertson, on behalf of the 
Cowpens Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution, in a speech 
gracious and witty, presented to Gary Foster a silver loving cup. 

In the evening the finest dinner the Hotel Cleveland could spread 
was served the Confederate soldiers and the returned Hampton 
Guards. Mayor Floyd was toastmaster and former Governor John 
Gary Evans made an eloquent address of welcome. Interesting 
responses were made by Lieutenant James A. Schwing and Major 
Cecil C. Wyche, commander of the Second Battalion, to which the 
Hampton Guards belonged. President H. Nelson Snyder of Wof¬ 
ford College made the concluding address. 

Record of In the midst of intense rejoicing at the return 

Company C of these men, Spartanburg people did not forget 

117th Engineers how large a number of their boys were still in 
the service—many still overseas. The first body of Spartans to go 
overseas had been Company C, 117th Engineers, Forty-Second Di¬ 
vision. After the final review of the Forty-Second Division, Major 
General W. C. Langfit cited the 117th Engineers for gallantry, 
saying: 

. . . The regiment participated in all of the engagements of 
the Forty-Second Division, frequently operating with bravery 
and dash as infantry, and yet always attending to its proper en¬ 
gineering duties. . . Served as a reserve through those mem¬ 
orable days during which the fate of the world hung in the bal¬ 
ance, and as such it suffered. . . At Chateau-Thierry . . . the 
engineers were everywhere. . . It was the engineers who made 
possible the retention of that narrow strip along the north bank 
of Ourcq. . . When more troops were needed to strike the final 
blow that broke the backbone of German resistance, it was the 
engineers . . . that struck it. They dropped their tools, picked 
up their rifles and advanced . . . reached the farthest point of 
advance of any dismounted elements of the Rainbow Division 
. . . could not rest, for they had to police the battlefield, one of 
the most disagreeable tasks that falls to a soldier’s lot . . . the 
engineering feats performed by this regiment during the brief 
period of open warfare (south of Sedan) were marvelous. . . 

General Langfit could not too enthusiastically praise the “initia¬ 
tive, resourcefulness, and do-or-die” with which the engineers did 


Demobilizations and Memories 


265 


their “very remarkable and invaluable engineering work, with in¬ 
sufficient tools, materials not suitable, days of hard marching with 
no food and no sleep.” 

The engineers left Brest April 13, disembarking in New York 
on April 28. After ten days at Camp Merritt, New Jersey, they 
went to Columbia and were mustered out at Camp Jackson. After 
organizing Company C, First Lieutenant English and Captain A. V. 
Hooks had gone away. When they returned, Johnson had become 
a colonel, Hooks a major, and English was captain of the company. 
The engineers were tired of parades and begged to be mustered out 
as rapidly as possible; and so, May 13, they began scattering to their 
homes as quietly and unostentatiously as they had left them, more 
than two years earlier. 

The Wildcats and In June the Spartans of the Eighty-First Di- 
The Sightseeing vision—the Wildcats — returned to America. 

They had reached France in August, and on 
February 11 they had received their gold stripes for six months of 
foreign service. The Wildcats were reviewed by Pershing, and com¬ 
mended in a letter written April 1, 1919. They participated in action 
from September 18 to October 19, and again November 6-9. They 
were in the Army of Occupation, and had banjo players among the 
Alabama boys, sweet-voiced singers from Tennessee, Southern Negro 
imitators from the Carolinas, soft-shoe dancers from Florida, and 
parody singers, comedians, and story-tellers from the Bronx, with 
a sprinkling of talent from other States. But they were homesick, 
and were delighted when, in June, they began to start home, arriving 
at various ports of debarkation. South Carolina’s men arrived at 
Charleston and were demobilized at Camp Jackson. 

Spartanburg’s men in the Sight-Seeing Sixth came home with 
lively accounts of “quiet” days spent in France, and of their six¬ 
teen-day hike across country, during which they slept at night in pup 
tents and by day marched immeasurable miles in the rain. 

Record of Mayor Floyd had planned a great all-day celebra- 

Spartanburg’s tion to honor Spartanburg County soldiers, those 
Soldiers belonging to the Regular Army and Navy, individ¬ 

uals who had volunteered under other flags, the volunteer companies, 
and also the 2,897 drafted men—the largest number supplied by any 
county in South Carolina. The estimate was made that the total 
number of Spartans in the World War exceeded 4,000. As events 


266 


A History of Spartanburg County 


turned out, the men came home so gradually and with such a dis¬ 
taste for parades and speech-making, that the mayor’s plans did not 
materialize, and the seventy-five sheep he had ready for the great 
day were never barbecued. 

A soldier who served six months in home training camps or in 
this country was entitled to wear on his sleeve a silver stripe as 
recognition of that service. Similarly six months’ overseas service 
entitled him to wear a gold stripe. A soldier wore a stripe for each 
wound he received. An organization usually displayed a “service 
flag,’’ which had a blue ground and bore a white star for each mem¬ 
ber or employee in the afmy. The star representing a soldier who 
had died for his country was replaced with a gold star. Later a 
gold star was pinned on the mother or widow of a dead soldier, and 
such women were accorded special consideration on official occa¬ 
sions. Soldiers who exhibited unusual courage or resourcefulness 
were decorated with medals or cited in general orders for special 
praise. 

Three sons of Spartanburg families died before any Spartanburg 
unit had gone across: Second Lieutenant William Montague Nicholls 
of the Royal Field Artillery, British Army; First Lieutenant Frank 
Gibbes Montgomery of the American Aviation Detachment at Tours, 
France; and Lieutenant Louis Armistead Freeman of the Sixth 
Infantry, United States Army. 

William Montague Nicholls was a son of Judge George W. and 
Nicholls Mrs. Minnie L. Nicholls, and had a soldier’s 

education—having attended the Citadel at Charleston, South Caro¬ 
lina, and the Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland. He was a 
one-time member of the Hampton Guards. Early in 1915 he volun¬ 
teered for service with the British and was made a second lieutenant 
in the Royal Field Artillery. He was wounded at La Chapelle, 
France, March 23, 1915, but recovered. In the bloody battle of 
Loos, September 26, 1915, he was killed, and was buried on the 
battlefield. 

Frank Gibbes Lieutenant Frank Gibbes Montgomery, the eldest 

Montgomery SO n 0 f Walter S. and Bessie G. Montgomery of 

Spartanburg, was a Wofford alumnus and an honor graduate of 
Yale University. He enlisted, May 2, 1917, as aerial squadron 
private first-class at Memphis, Tennessee. He was shortly afterward 
sent to the aerial grounds at Columbus, Ohio; transferred to Fort 


Demobilizations and Memories 


267 


Wood, New York, July 23, 1917; and arrived in France, August 13. 
He joined the Aviation Detachment at Tours, France, August 15th; 
was transferred to Avord, September 12th, and on October 12th, 
was sent to Issoudon, the largest aviation field in the world. He 
graduated as pilot-aviator November 16, 1917, receiving the French 
brevet of “Pilot Aviateur” No. 8448, and was commissioned First 
Lieutenant, A.S.O.R.C., December 11, 1917, entering service under 
the commission the day following. While temporarily assigned to 
Base Section 3, England, he met his death while on duty, flying in 
an aeroplane with a British officer at Hythe, England, on March 6, 
1918. At the time he was assigned to duty at a school for aerial 
gunnery at Hythe, and the flight was his first at that place. 

Louis Armistead Lieutenant Louis Armistead Freeman, son of 
Freeman Edwin J. and Mrs. Dora C. Freeman, was the 

only Spartanburg graduate of West Point killed in the war. He 
graduated in June 1917, went overseas in 1918, and was stationed 
in the St. Die sector on the Lorraine frontier. On March 17, 1918, 
in leading his company in an attack, he received a mortal wound 
from which he died the same day. 

J. B. White A most unusual distinction fell to Sergeant J. B. 
White of Spartanburg—that of receiving more wounds than any 
other soldier in the A.E.F. The Herald, May 31, 1918, directed 
public attention to White’s unique record. He was wounded sixty- 
seven times while in France, but none of these wounds were fatal. 
These wounds were received in five battles and were the result of 
snipers’ bullets, shrapnel, and machine gun bullets. White was a 
Regular Army man, having served three full enlistments in the 
Army, and also an enlistment in the Navy. He left America for 
France from Hoboken pier, June 4, 1917, as first sergeant of Com¬ 
pany G, 28th Infantry, First Division. White was wounded in 
the first Cantigny drive, June 28, 1918; in the battle of the Marne, 
July 20, 1918; in the battle of Sazerais, August 19, 1918; in an 
engagement October 5, 1918, in which he received wounds from 
five machine gun bullets; and at Mouzon, November 7, 1918. He 
participated in the battles of Soissons, and the St. Mihiel drive, but 
did not receive any wounds in these fights. After the Armistice was 
signed, he was honored by General Pershing with a personal inter¬ 
view. Sergeant White, after his retirement, lived in Spartanburg with 
his parents, Mr. and Mrs. J. K. White. On May 12, 1920, he was 


268 


A History of Spartanburg County 


killed in an automobile accident, and was buried in Oakwood Ceme¬ 
tery with military honors. 

Citations Spartanburg County had twenty-four soldiers who 

and Medals were cited or decorated by their own country or 

the Allies. They were: 

James D. Andrews, Croix de Guerre. 

Dewey G. Arnold, Distinguished Service Cross, Croix de Guerre, 
Silver Star. 

John F. Arrow wood, Croix de Guerre. 

Roe Bradley, Distinguished Service Cross, Croix de Guerre. 
Will Bruce, Distinguished Service Cross. 

Robert Z. Cates, Croix de Guerre. 

Robert W. Collins, French Etoile Noire. 

Gary Evans Foster, Congressional Medal of Honor, Distinguished 
Conduct Medal, Croix de Guerre, Italian Croix de Guerre, 
Portuguese Croix de Guerre, Montenegrin Medal of Honor, 
Medaille Militaire. 

Thomas Frank Fielder, Italian Ribbon. 

Frank Fitzsimons, Navy Cross. 

Melvin N. Jardin, Distinguished Service Cross, Croix de Guerre. 
Carlos G. Harris, Croix de Guerre, Legion of Honor, Silver Star. 
Edgar McDowell, Distinguished Service Cross, Croix de Guerre. 
L. L. McKinney, Distinguished Service Cross, Legion of Honor,. 

Croix de Guerre, Medaille Militaire. 

Ira E. Major, Distinguished Service Cross. 

T. C. Montgomery, Legion of Honor. 

Andrew J. Padgett, Distinguished Service Cross. 

Charles D. Rounds, Distinguished Service Cross. 

James A. Schwing, Distinguished Service Cross, Croix de Guerre, 
Silver Star. 

LeRoy Watson Smith, Distinguished Service Cross, Medaille 
Militaire. 

Theron F. Stack, Purple Heart. 

Joseph W. Starkey, Distinguished Service Cross. 

Joseph W. Turner, Distinguished Service Cross, Croix de Guerre, 
British Military Medal. 

Dewey A. Whitaker, Distinguished Service Cross. 

Charles P. Wofford, Officier d’ Academie. 


Demobilizations and Memories 


269 


The Honored The names of Spartans who died in France appear 
Dead on the tablet at Memorial Airport, which reads: 

THIS AIRPORT DEDICATED TO THE MEMORY 
OF SPARTANBURG COUNTY MEN WHO DIED 
SERVING THEIR COUNTRY UNDER ARMS DUR¬ 
ING THE WORLD WAR 

Lieutenant Colonel J. A. Brice, First Lieutenant Louis A. 
Freeman, First Lieutenant T. C. Herbert, First Lieutenant Frank 
G. Montgomery, Lieutenant Montague Nicholls (Royal Field Ar¬ 
tillery), John T. Adams, Robert S. Bailey, Joseph A. Barker, 
David Barnett, Walter T. Beach, James E. Bishop, Algie D. 
Blackwell, Virgil Blackwell, Jule H. Browning, Ernest C. Buice, 
Charles M. Bullman, Vaugh Wilford Carson, Coke T. Chesney, 
Edgar Lee Coggins, Robert F. Coleman, William B. Crawley, 
James E. Culp, Bryson E. Davis, John Dockrey, Derieux Edge, 
Lee A. Edwards, George M. Epton, Mark E. Fisher, William 
Wallace Fowler, Rufus Genoble, Boyce L. Gowin, Clarence E. 
Greenway, John H. Griffin, William H. Hammett, Wylie C. Har¬ 
mon, Claude Russell Harrison, William Herbert Harrison, Smith 
J. Harvey, Brinson M. Henson, James N. Henson, W. T. Hewitt, 
Isaac B. Hinson, Thomas R. Hughes, Lorane Hutchens, Grover 
C. Kirby, Crawford Lindsay, Richard L. Lister, Furman C. Mc- 
Dade, Thomas O. McHugh, Ira W. Miles, Walter Ellis McMillan, 
David M. Miller, Paul B. Mooneyham, Elisha Morgan, Horace 
Newman, William F. Orr, Allen H. Owensby, George L. Painter, 
Lawrence P. Petty, Romeo Petty, Russell G. Quinn, Williard 
Robinson, Merrett Rogers, Coel D. Ross, Bernard A. Rudisail, 
Willie B. Sanders, Coleman Sellars, Paul E. Settle, Vasco W. 
Smith, William Stuart Sothern, William E. Thomas, John M. 
Thomas, Leroy Turney, George W. Waldrop, John G. Walker, 
Ralph J. Walker, Columbus C. Weathers, Thomas Dent West, 
Albert L. Wheeler, Robert Y. Wilkins, Lawson G. Williams, 
Claude Williams, Norman Wilson, Arthur J. Wood, William R. 
Wright. (COLORED) : Jess Bobo, Zan Cade, Dennis Chambers, 
Ed Collins, Marshall Collins, James Dawkins, Archie DeShields, 
Glen Doudle, Elliott Drummond, Fred D. Durham, Dave Foster, 
William Franklin, Enzy Gist, Perry Harris, Richard Henderson, 
Sam Hoey, Sammy Humphries, Clifton Irby, Marcellus Johnson, 
Giles Jones, John W. Jones, Percy Lee Landrum, Zeno Little¬ 
john, William Logan, Andy Mayo, John McBeth, John Mc- 
Clintock, Wm. Mcjunkin, Sam Means, Grover Michols, Hylie 
Michols, Arthur Miller, John Montgomery, Samson Moore, 
Charlie Nesbit, Boyd Paden, David Smith, Perry Smith, Jim 
Stephens, Philip Tanner, Thomas Tanner, Jos. Teamer, Edgar 


270 


A History of Spartanburg County 


Turner, Robert C. Whitmire, Jairus Wilson, Alexander Wingo, 
John Young. 

Gold Star Widows The women from this county who were made 
and Mothers widows by the World War, so far as their names 

can be ascertained, are as follows: 

Mrs. Nannie Barker, Mrs. David Barnett, Mrs. J. E. Bishop, 
Mrs. Virgie Blackwell, Mrs. Iris Gentry Bailey, Mrs. Horace 
Bullman, Mrs. Vannie Coggins, Mrs. John Dockery, Mrs. Mary 
N. Edge, Mrs. Lee A. Edwards, Mrs. Clarence E. Greenway, 
Mrs. Grover C. Kirby, Mrs. William T. Hewitt, Mrs. Harriett 
Frazier Johnson, Mrs Allen Huston Owensby, Mrs. Amanda 
Morgan, Mrs. Furman C. McDade, Mrs. Colem D. Ross, Mrs. 
Paul Settle, Mrs. W. E. Thomas, Mrs. C. C. Weathers, Mrs. 
Lloyd Williams, Mrs. Maude Wilkins. 

Following is the list of mothers who wear the Gold Star because 
their sons died in the service of their country during the World War: 

Mrs. M. E. Alverson, Mrs. William Durham Blackwell, Mrs. 
Janie K. Brice, Mrs. William M. Browning, Mrs. B. B. Bullman, 
Mrs. George D. Chesney, Mrs. Ada Gowan Claton, Mrs. Sallie 
Turner Coker, Mrs J. E. Culp, Mrs. J. A. Davis, Mrs. J. E. 
Freeman, Mrs. Andrew Green, Mrs. Lucy Harman Griffin, Mrs. 
R. C. Harrison, Mrs. Edward B. Harrison, Mrs. John S. Har¬ 
mon, Mrs. Gennie Harvey, Mrs. Columbus Henson, Mrs. J. K. 
Hughes, Mrs. Janie Kirby, Mrs. Mattie McHugh, Mrs. T. C. 
McDade, Mrs. Bettie Miller, Mrs. H. P. Miles, Mrs. Walter S. 
Montgomery, Mrs. Noah Mullins, Mrs. George Nicholls, Mrs. 
Margaret Painter, Mrs. Margaret Ross, Mrs. M. D. Robinson, 
Mrs. A. C. Rudisail, Mrs. Dollie Sellers, Mrs. Hattie Walker, 
Mrs. Sarah Weathers, Mrs. Lou West, Mrs. Amanda Wilkins, 
Mrs. Eila Wilson. 


Changed Activities When the camp was officially closed, March 25, 
at Camp Wadsworth 1919^ the War Department ordered the excel¬ 
lent hospital at Camp Wadsworth maintained as General Hospital 
Number 42, and it was kept in operation for the care of convalescent 
soldiers until September 30. On that date the 230 patients still there 
w r ere transferred to a hospital at Oteen, North Carolina. The nurses, 
officers, and men were transferred or given their discharges. Dur¬ 
ing the six months it was maintained, Hospital Number 42 cared for 
2,200 patients. 

Many of these patients were well enough to be in and out of 
Spartanburg, as of course were the nurses, doctors, and other sol- 


Demobilizations and Memories 


271 


diers attached to the camp. The practice was continued of holding 
regular dances and parties at the Soldiers’ Club on Wednesday after¬ 
noons and on Tuesday and Saturday nights. 

The hospital published a semi-monthly magazine, Biand Foryu, 
the final issue of which—published August 25, 1918—presented a 
review of the hospital activities, and served as a souvenir of this 
phase of Camp Wadsworth’s history. 

There were a few red-letter days in the course of the hospital’s 
existence. One was ‘‘Flower Day”—May 4, 1918—on which the 
women of the County, the nurses, and various cooperating agencies so 
worked together that each of the more than 1,500 patients then in the 
hospital, on awakening that Sunday morning, found a bouquet by his 
bedside. 

In June, seventy-five of the convalescent patients were guests of 
the Spartanburg Young Men’s Christian Association and the Hen¬ 
dersonville Board of Trade, jointly, on an all-day outing which in¬ 
cluded lunch at an inn at Chimney Rock. The camp community en¬ 
tertained the public with music and contests on the Fourth of July, 
and were guests of the City on September 2, at the first noteworthy 
celebration of Labor Day ever held in Spartanburg, special dances and 
receptions being held in honor of officers, nurses, and enlisted men 
from the hospital. 

A Visit From General O’Ryan was one of the principal speakers 
General O’Ryan at ^e reunion of the Thirtieth Division held at its 
training grounds, Camp Sevier, Greenville, South Carolina, on Sep¬ 
tember 29, 1919, the anniversary of its exploits in breaking the Hin- 
denburg Line. General and Mrs. O’Ryan were the guests, on the 
following day, of the city of Spartanburg. As important to General 
O’Ryan as the luncheons, dinners, and public receptions tendered 
him was his visit to his old camp; and he expressed interest in plans 
for its preservation as a Memorial Park—plans which were to wait 
more than twenty years for fruition. 

Aftermath The policy of the government concerning the camps 
established for training soldiers had been to sell such construction 
and equipment as could not be advantageously transferred to perma¬ 
nent camps. One exception was made: material suitable for road 
building or public utilities was given to municipalities and highway 
commissions. Frank Hodges, whose wife owned most of the land 


272 


A History of Spartanburg County 


included in the Camp Wadsworth tract, was the successful bidder for 
the materials left on the property. Mrs. Hodges donated to the 
public a tract for a Memorial Park. 

With the closing of the hospital the existence of Camp Wads¬ 
worth ended. A detail of thirty to fifty soldiers of the quarter¬ 
master’s department cared for the final disposal of government prop¬ 
erty, and salvaging companies began their work. 

The reaction from the strain and excitement of war days and 
war ways was so marked that the first anniversary of Armistice Day 
found Spartanburg unprepared with any plans for its celebration. 
In the morning, as the realization of this amazing situation dawned 
on the community, a spontaneous demand rose for some recognition 
of the day, and of the men who had served in the American Expe¬ 
ditionary Force. “Smokes” and “eats” w’ere arranged for, and the 
evening paper announced “Open House” at the Soldiers’ Club. 
There was a heavy rain, and only about one hundred men participated 
in what turned out to be to them a very enjoyable occasion. There 
were few speeches, but each man was called on to tell exactly what 
he was doing November 11, 1918, and the evening passed in exchange 
of reminiscences. 

The strange interlude was over. Spartanburg had again proven 
herself the City of Success. The editor of the Herald was able to 
say, June 8, 1919: 

The city went “over the top” in every Liberty Bond drive, 
and in practically every instance it not only subscribed its allotted 
quota in a very short while, but oversubscribed. The many and 
divers kinds of war work drives were all successfully put over in 
Spartanburg. 

The Camp was gone, the boys were back home from overseas, and 
the task of building Spartanburg again absorbed the energies of 
the citizens. Camp Wadsworth was already, in the words of J. C. 
Hemphill, editor of the Spartanburg Journal, “only a patriotic and 
holy memory.” 










X 

V 









** * 




*? 

t 









































1'tte City of Spartanburg in 1931 




CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX 


These Latter Days 

The citizens of a county brought so intimately into 
contact with the World War as Spartanburg could 
never go back to patterns of living and thinking that 
satisfied them before 1917. The county took up unfinished tasks 
which the World War had interrupted—road building, hospital 
building, educational advancement, agricultural progress, and com¬ 
mercial expansion. The most pressing business was road improve¬ 
ment. Bitter controversies arose as to the proper location of the 
hard surface road toward Howard Gap. Chesnee and Cowpens 
citizens, in 1919, threatened to petition the legislature to transfer 
them to Cherokee County if their roads were not bettered. In Jan¬ 
uary 1920, the residents of the Greer area came within a few votes 
of seceding and being annexed to Greenville County. 

The report of the State Highway Department for 1920 showed 
that the entire State then had 26.01 miles of hard surface roads, 
and Spartanburg had 6.9 of this total. In 1940, as in 1920, Spar¬ 
tanburg has more miles of road than any other county, with a road 
system of more than 2,300 miles, more than 300 miles of it hard¬ 
surfaced. There are 80 bridges in the county, the smallest 9 feet 
long and the largest 420 feet, spanning Pacolet River at Clifton No. 
Two. Three covered bridges remain in 1940 to link the present 
with the past. Besides its own roads, the county contains nearly 
300 miles of State-maintained highways, including more than fifty 
bridges. 

Some Effects The development of the highways has made Spar- 
of Highway tanburg a center for bus systems, and one of the 

Development outstanding new developments of 1940 has been the 
erection of a modern bus station. The number of privately owned 
automobiles in Spartanburg County in 1904 was seven; and in 1940, 
23,450. With good roads, cheap automobiles, school busses, and 
multiplication of public conveyances, a back-to-the-land trend is ob¬ 
servable. 

Railroads In railroads, as in highway construction, Spartanburg 
leads the counties of South Carolina. The reports of the Railroad 
Commission show that in the total value of railroad property Spar- 

273 


Post-War 

Enterprises: 

Highways 


274 


A History of Spartanburg County 


tanburg County is first, Charleston second, and Richland third. The 
wealthiest of the railroads is the Southern, with its main line from 
Washington to New Orleans and one of its principal branch lines 
from Charleston to Cincinnati crossing here. The Southern Shops 
have more than 700 employees and a pay roll not far short of a mil¬ 
lion dollars. The Southern Railway’s taxes amount to over $120,000 
annually, the city receiving about $8,000 of the amount. The 
Southern pays Spartanburg annually for water more than $14,000; 
and for electric current a like amount. The Charleston and Western 
Carolina Railway has been absorbed into the Atlantic Coast Line, and 
Spartanburg thereby has direct freight connection with that great 
system. 

The Clinchfield Railroad has made Spartanburg a great coal 
distributing point, and its activities add easily a half-million 
dollars to local incomes. This road hauls into Spartanburg each 
year as much as 100,000 tons of fuel coal. 

The Piedmont and Northern Electric Railroad maintains a very 
convenient mode of interurban travel and traffic, operating crowded 
trains through one of the most densely populated industrial areas 
in the county—between Greer and Spartanburg—and doing an ex¬ 
tensive freight business. 


Fruit* of The Interstate Commerce Commission recognized 

Preferential j n 1925 that Spartanburg had become one of the 

Freight Rates strategic junction points in the Southeast, and there¬ 
fore it was granted the same preferential freight rates enjoyed by 
Norfolk and Atlanta. An immediate effect of this action was the 
location in the county of the Taylor-Colquitt Company for timber 
conservation, and this enterprise has become one of the largest of 
its sort in the world, with a branch plant at Wilmington, N. C. Ex¬ 
perimentation, manufacture of special types of machinery, and varied 
treatments and processings adapted to special types of timber and 
their proposed uses, are going on all the time at the Spartanburg 
plant. 

While the pay roll of the Taylor-Colquitt Company and the 
taxes it pays are assets to the county, the indirect results of its 
establishment in providing new business and markets for timber 
which had previously had little value are also important. Many 
other industries profited by the lowering of freight rates—especially 
the cotton manufacturers, wholesale grocers, and peach growers. 


These Latter Days 


275 


A new slogan, “The Hub City of the Southeast,” echoed that adopted 
in 1888, “The Hub City of the Piedmont.” 

Textile In 1930 the report of the South Carolina Commissioner 
Wealth Q f Agriculture, Commerce, and Industry stated: “Spar¬ 
tanburg is again the premier textile manufacturing county for the 
State. This county has led in the industry since 1920.” It led in 
value of products, number of employees, amount of wages, and 
also in the number of bales of cotton consumed and produced. In 
1930 the textile plants were valued at $13,184,275; textile products 
for one year were valued at $37,473,253; and 9,952 workers earned 
$6,440,887 in manufacturing them. Ten years later, after passing 
through a series of ups and downs, the industry was again pros¬ 
pering, and W. P. Jacobs, Executive Vice President of the Cotton 
Manufacturers Association, wrote: “As we go into 1940, the textile 
mills of the county are releasing larger pay rolls than ever before in 
the history of the county, an average of over $1,000,000 a month.” 
The amount invested in the county’s thirty-five mills in 1940 has 
been estimated at nearly $40,000,000; the value of annual products 
at more than $58,000,000; the number of employees at almost 16,000; 
and the number of bales consumed at 200,000. 

When the World War began, the era of mill building had passed 
its peak, but rebuilding or improving plants went on, and a few new 
mills were founded. First after the war was the Model Mill, 
erected in 1919, as an adjunct of the Textile Industrial Institute. 
It was operated a number of years, producing a superior shirting 
marketed under the name “Character Cloth.” Practical considera¬ 
tions led to the abandonment of this enterprise, and the plant was 
sold to the Powell Knitting Company. 

The erection of a Pacific Mills plant at Lyman, in 1924, sig¬ 
nalized a new stage in Spartanburg’s mill history, which began in 
1816 with the building of the Hill and Weaver factories on Tyger 
River. Even after having seen the miracle of Camp Wadsworth, 
people found a singular fascination in watching the rapid construc¬ 
tion at Lyman. The wondering visitors to Hill’s and Weaver’s and 
Bivings’ early factories were not more impressed in their day than 
were Spartans of 1924 by what they saw at Lyman. The entire 
village shows careful, intelligent planning, with parks, recreational 
facilities, an armory, a community building, a library, a modern 
school building, and two churches. 


276 


A History of Spartanburg County 


The purchase of Tucapau in 1939 and its conversion into a thor¬ 
oughly modem mill community, renamed Startex, presents a parallel 
example. 

Cotton Not only in textile production but in cotton growing, 

Growing Spartanburg has maintained preeminence. Throughout 
the year 1919 much discussion went on concerning cotton. During 
an intensive three-months campaign, Congressman A. F. Lever, in 
an address in Spartanburg before an audience largely composed of 
cotton growers, said: 

The definite thing to come out of this organization of the 
growers of cotton is a system of cotton warehouses for Spartan¬ 
burg County that will make possible for all time the systematic 
and economical marketing of the county’s cotton crop. It is 
estimated that the cotton, together with its seed, grown in this 
county this year will be worth $13,000,000. A crop of that value 
coming on the market in a few weeks now is certainly worth 
taking care of. That sum of money would build three army 
camps the size of Camp Wadsworth, so it is no small undertak¬ 
ing that is being presented to the men of Spartanburg County 
who are on the farms and controlling the agricultural destinies 
of the county. 

From 1920 during a long period Spartanburg led the counties in 
the number of bales produced and in the value and quantity of its 
cotton seed products. In 1929 it reached its highest production 
figures: 135,459 acres, with a yield of 78,962 bales. 

The Spartanburg County Warehouse Company was organized 
and capitalized at $300,000. On its list of incorporators were: 
L. M. Lanford, Pauline; W. W. Murph, Whitestone; D. B. Ander¬ 
son, Reidville; J. W. Gaston, Duncan; O. M. Moore, Duncan; Roy 
P. Whitlock, Landrum; J. J. Finch, Moore; A. F. Burton, New 
Prospect; W. W. Painter, Cherokee; A. M. Chreitzberg, Spartan¬ 
burg; John B. Cannon, Spartanburg; Thomas M. Lyles, Spartan¬ 
burg; W. R. Dillingham, Spartanburg; H. W. Kirby, Spartanburg. 
Directors were: Ben Gramling, Gramling; V. E. Hatchette, Ches- 
nee; L. H. Irby, Woodruff; W. B. Patton, Cross Anchor. 

Another organization, the Spartanburg Cotton Association, was 
formed in the city and erected a building, the cornerstone being laid 
with elaborate ceremonies. Nation-wide attention was attracted to 
the “Spartanburg Plan” for cotton warehouses. One of the first 
instances of conversion to other uses of Camp Wadsworth property 


These Latter Days 


277 


was the acquisition of a large regimental warehouse by the Spar¬ 
tanburg County Warehouse Company. The supremacy of King 
Cotton seemed assured. 

The Peach Yet there were straws to show a change in the winds 
Industry 0 f destiny. The boll weevil threatened the cotton 
growers. In their search for other cash crops, Spartanburg farmers 
found that the soil and climate of the county were suited to the 
growing of peaches. This realization was the outgrowth of an 
educational campaign begun in 1920 by Ernest Carnes, at that time 
county farm agent for Spartanburg. Carnes and A. E. Schilleter, 
horticulturist in the Clemson College Extension Service, preached 
the same doctrine, and set on foot a series of experiments which, 
before twenty years had passed, led to Spartanburg County’s pro¬ 
ducing more peaches than any other county in the United States. 
These men advocated diversified farming; the planting of cotton 
was not to be abandoned, but supplemented by fruits, vegetables, 
and forage crops. 

The detailed story of the development of the peach industry has 
many episodes—such as the planting of cooperative orchards under 
the guidance of Clemson College Extension agents, the emergence 
of the Gramling family to national fame because of their success in 
peach growing, the transformation of the upper section of the county 
into a panorama of landscape beauty, and the development of such 
related industries as basket-making, crate-making, canning, and 
trucking. 

The peach industry succeeded from the start; in 1924 four car¬ 
loads were shipped by rail to Northern markets; in 1925 the number 
of cars was 24; in 1926 it was 62; in 1934, 298 cars were sold; 
in 1935, 468 cars; in 1936, 646 cars; in 1937, more than 900 cars; 
in 1938, more than 1,200 cars; and in 1939 Spartanburg County’s 
peach production surpassed every earlier record. Official records 
indicate that in 1938 Spartanburg County had 1,800,000 trees planted, 
350,000 of them bearing. The industry employed more than 7,000 
part-time workers. The crop is estimated to have sold for more 
than $600,000. These figures do not take account of the sales to 
independent trucks at the shipping points, which do a good small 
business in culls. In 1939 the peach growers of the Carolinas and 
Georgia formed a corporation for marketing and advertising, called 
the Georgia-Carolinas Peach Marketing Board. Other organiza- 


278 


A History of Spartanburg County 


tions growing out of the industry are the South Carolina Peach 
Growers Cooperative Association and the Piedmont Truckers’ Ex¬ 
change. 

The success of peach growing stimulated similar attention to 
other fruits. County Agent W. H. Stallworth led in the organization 
of the Spartanburg Farmers’ Market Association, and in July, 1939, 
the first truck-load of standardized crated cantaloupes ever shipped 
from this county left for the New York markets. It consisted of 
341 crates, bearing the trade name “Spartan Brand — Mountain 
Grown Cantaloupes,” and the melons it carried were produced on 
sixteen different Spartanburg farms. More than five hundred acres 
were planted in cantaloupes in 1940, and this crop was expected to 
bring in a cash return of approximately $60,000. 

Federal Government The selection of Spartanburg, in 1934, as head- 
Aids to Farmers quarters for the Southeastern Division of the 
Soil Conservation Service of the United States Department of Agri¬ 
culture has greatly influenced the agricultural development of the 
county. In 1934 the South Tyger River Project was set up, the 
first area in the Southeast chosen to demonstrate, in cooperation with 
farmers within the area, methods of soil erosion control and soil 
reclamation. Diversification of crops, more intelligent care of wild 
life, the development of dairying and grazing, and the planting and 
management of timber and forest products have all been fostered by 
this service. 

The program of the Federal Agricultural Adjustment Adminis¬ 
tration, like that of the Soil Conservation Service, supplemented the 
efforts of the county agents to develop crop diversification. After 
1933 the cotton acreage was greatly reduced, and correspondingly the 
grain and forage crops increased. Poultry and dairy farming and 
forestry became increasingly important, and the development of 
cooperative marketing methods provided means for the average gen¬ 
eral farmer to sell farm surplus in small quantities. 

The Farm Security Administration of the Federal Government 
has attacked one of the most vexing social problems in the agricultural 
realm—that of the drifting tenant farmer—by providing opportunity 
for men of this class to become property owners and thereby, presum¬ 
ably, more thrifty and more patriotic citizens. After the depression 
of 1929 the number of rented farms in the county reached 71.1 per 


These Latter Days 


279 


cent. It is slowly decreasing, but this is one phase of life in the 
county which calls for anxious thought and constructive action. 

Spartanburg County is, with all its textile wealth and educational 
activity, a rural area, with agriculture as the leading pursuit. Ninety 
per cent of the county area is in farm lands; annual crops yield ap¬ 
proximately $6,000,000 ; 46,704 persons make their living from 8,563 
farms. 

Public Health The World War interrupted plans for the building of a 
Measures county hospital, and the resumption of this under¬ 
taking was one of the first concerns of the county commissioners, the 
physicians of the county, and the general public. Dirt was broken 
in July 1919, and work went forward until the opening of the Spar¬ 
tanburg County General Hospital, September 29, 1921. Frank Col¬ 
lins was the architect. This hospital cost a quarter of a million dol¬ 
lars, and was paid for by a special bond issue. It is maintained by 
a special tax levy supplemented by generous donations. The suc¬ 
cessful launching of this hospital was made certain by the coopera¬ 
tion of the three hospitals already established. The John Nina Hos¬ 
pital for Negroes was continued in operation until 1930, when the 
Negro ward was established at the General Hospital. The same year 
a Tuberculosis ward was built near Fairforest. 

The General Hospital is operated at an annual cost of approxi¬ 
mately a quarter of a million dollars, employs thirty-two staff phy¬ 
sicians, four resident doctors, one hundred and twenty-five full-time 
employees, and has approximately one hundred student nurses in 
training. The hospital cares for about 7,000 patients each year. 
There is now agitation for its expansion. 

In addition to the facilities provided by the General Hospital and 
the city and county departments of health, Spartanburg County has 
several excellent private institutions. The largest is the Mary Black 
Memorial Hospital, established in the city in 1925. Good hospitals 
have been established in Woodruff and Chesnee, and all of the larger 
mills maintain clinics and community nurses. During the war years 
the city modernized its health department, which has been maintained 
since in accordance with the best standards. Approximately fifty 
thousand dollars annually is set aside on the city’s budget to operate 
this department. 

A county health department was organized in 1925, and has done 
distinguished work. In 1935 this department received a “Progress 


280 


A History of Spartanburg County 


Trophy”—the only one of its class awarded in the nation—in recog¬ 
nition of three successive years of excellent work in the observance of 
National Negro Health Week. Dr. Hilla Sheriff, who led in this 
activity, was reported as being, at the time, the only woman county 
health officer in the nation. This department has stressed educational 
work, rural demonstrations, health clubs, lectures, and exhibits. Close 
cooperation has been established with the Work Projects Adminis¬ 
tration and the National Youth Administration in conducting clinics, 
and in training classes in bedside nursing and nutrition. 

Public The progress of public education was closely tied up 
Education w ith road improvement. Redistricting, consolidating of 
weak schools, transportation of pupils by school busses, were direct 
consequences of better roads. During the two decades following 
the World War, Spartanburg County ranked often first and always 
among the first three or four counties in school expenditures, enroll¬ 
ments, and achievements. In 1919 the county’s school revenue was 
$333,973.08—the largest in the State. The city of Spartanburg had 
a graded school system unexcelled, and there were accredited high 
schools at Campobello, Chesnee, Cowpens, Cross Anchor, Inman, 
Landrum, and Woodruff—a larger number than in any other county. 
The county had, including these graded schools, forty white and two 
Negro schools with more than three teachers; twenty-five white three- 
teacher schools; thirty-four white and nine Negro two-teacher schools; 
thirty-one white and sixty-six Negro one-teacher schools. Twenty 
years later (1939), reports of the State and County Commissioners 
of Education were to show Spartanburg the richest county in the 
State in school property, with valuations of more than $4,000,000. 
To the list of accredited schools have been added: Boiling Springs, 
Duncan, Fairforest, Gramling, Greer, Holly Springs, Mayo, New 
Prospect, Cooley Springs, Pacolet, Pauline, Reidville, Roebuck, W.- 
L.-T. 

The consolidated high school situated at Wellford and known fa¬ 
miliarly as “W-L-T”—a thoroughly modern, well equipped high 
school, not so widely recognized as Greenville’s Parker District, but 
very similar in character—is outstanding among the county schools. 
Pupils from Wellford, Lyman, and Tucapau districts make up the 
enrollment, and many of them are transported several miles to and 
from their homes by school busses. 

The annual budget on which the county school system operated 


These Latter Days 


281 


for the year 1938-39 amounted to $1,379,452.66, of which sum the 
State furnished $555,898. With this money 1,016 teachers were em¬ 
ployed in ninety-five schools for whites and sixty-eight for colored 
children. The enrollment was 31,510, and the average attendance was 
26,407. Forty-five school busses were operated. During this one 
year, twelve new schools for white children and six for Negroes were 
built in the county. 

A Municipal The year 1931 marked the centenary of the incorpora- 
Centenary tion Q f Spartanburg, and it was highly significant that 
the city in its celebration almost ignored its history as a municipality 
and focused its program on the development of the county rather than 
of the city. An executive committee was selected to arrange a suit¬ 
able program: Frank Bostick, chairman; H. B. Carlisle, Dr. R. P. 
Pell, Dr. H. N. Snyder, Dr. J. A Tillinghast, Dr John W. Harris, Jr., 
and S. J. Nicholls. This committee arranged an all-day celebration 
November 20, 1931, which included a historical exhibit, a pageant, 
and a banquet. The exhibit included costumes, china, furniture, 
household equipment, works of art, household linens and fabrics, 
weapons, letters, newspapers, and documents. Mrs. J. Boykin Lyles 
was general chairman of the exhibits committee, and throngs of citi¬ 
zens studied the remarkable collection this committee displayed in 
the “Brick House Antique Shoppe.” 

At two o’clock in the afternoon a “Centennial Pageant,” prepared 
and directed by Dr. August Vermont, was presented on Snyder 
Field on the Wofford College campus. The grandstand and bleachers 
overflowed with spectators, and the sidelines were packed. More 
than a thousand participants, representing every group of citizens in 
the county, presented in orchestral music, song, dance, pantomime, 
and drama, the outstanding features of the county’s history. 

At seven in the evening a formal centennial banquet in the Con¬ 
verse College dining room ended the celebration. W. G. Jackson and 
J. Neville Holcombe were associated as chairmen of the dinner com¬ 
mittee, and D. A. Russell was chairman of the publicity committee. 
Miss Ruth Sara Routh was chairman of the music committee, which, 
with the cooperation of the city’s musicians, individually and as or¬ 
ganizations, provided a varied and colorful musical setting for the 
different events of the day. The centennial chorus included repre¬ 
sentative delegations from the accredited high schools of the county. 


282 


A History of Spartanburg County 


The centennial orator was the president of Wofford College, Dr. 
Henry Nelson Snyder. 

Retrospect One hundred years saw the “village” of 1831 grow into 
the “Hub City of the Southeast” of 1931. The first charter was ob¬ 
tained December 17, 1831. It was several times revised or amended, 
and twice the old charter was replaced by an entirely new one—in 
1880, when Spartanburg became a “city,” and in 1913, when the com¬ 
mission form of government was adopted, and the city’s official desig¬ 
nation became “City of Spartanburg.” 

Not until 1915 did the city have a distinctive seal. In that year 
the council conducted a competition for a suitable design for a city 
seal. Of the twenty-four entries submitted, that of Miss Janie Adam 
was adopted and has been the official seal since. Its symbolism 
stresses those aspects of Spartanburg of which the citizens are 
proudest—education, industry, progress. 



The records of the town council are available except for the years 
1843-1850; apparently a volume has been lost covering these years. 
During its first hundred years the town had, according to these rec¬ 
ords, twenty-three mayors: Thomas Poole, H. H. Thomson, Elisha 
Bomar, James E. Henry, John S. Rowland, Hosea Dean, R. C. Poole, 
G. W. H. Legg, Jefferson Choice, John B. Cleveland, S. Bobo, John 
E Bomar, A. Twitty, William Choice, J. H. Evins, Joseph Walker, 
J. A. Henneman, J. S. R. Thomson, Arch B. Calvert, John Floyd, 
Boyce Lee, O. L. Johnson, Ben Hill Brown. 

John Floyd served altogether, but not consecutively, sixteen years. 
Arch Calvert and Ben Hill Brown each served twelve years. Joseph 
Walker served for ten years; John E. Bomar for six years; John B. 
Cleveland for five years; G. W. H. Legg and H. H. Thomson for 
four years each; and Hosea Dean, Jefferson Choice, and J. S. R. 
Thomson for three years each. Before 1880 the terms of town of¬ 
ficials lasted one year; from 1880 to 1917, two years; and since 1917, 


These Latter Days 


283 


four years. Just how much Spartanburg grew in a hundred years 
appears when the 1931 budget of more than a half-million dollars is 
compared with the first on record, that of the year 1834, during which 
H. H. Thomson, as intendant, received $201.20 and paid out $158.88. 

Civic Pride The 1931 budget provided for such items as would be 
required by any prosperous city of 25,000 inhabitants—administra¬ 
tion, health, police, fire department, street department, lighting, parks 
—and stirred feelings of civic pride. Educational accomplishments 
were greater sources of satisfaction to the city. The graded school 
sy.stem, with more than 5,000 pupils and nearly 200 teachers, was 
within ten years to have more than 7,000 pupils, 240 teachers, and 
thirteen buildings valued at a quarter of a million dollars. The oper¬ 
ating cost of the city school system is practically half a million yearly. 
Converse College, Wofford College, the State School for the Deaf 
and the Blind, Textile Industrial Institute, all thriving and each a 
leader among institutions of its class, were also celebrated as objects 
of local pride. 

Converse College celebrated the commencement of 1931, the for¬ 
tieth, as alumnae commencement. When Converse College was 
founded, doubts were voiced as to the probability of Southern girls 
ever subjecting themselves to such a stern intellectual discipline as was 
proposed by the first president. In 1931, the alumnae, upon present¬ 
ing to the college portraits of its first two presidents, could proudly 
say that the dreams of both had been realized. Three years earlier 
they had celebrated the twenty-fifth anniversary of their second presi¬ 
dent, Robert Paine Pell, whose zeal in furthering the program ini¬ 
tiated by B. F. Wilson and D. E. Converse had secured for the college 
they founded primacy among colleges for women in the State: it was 
the first to join every important academic organization. 

The years following 1931 were to see Converse College again in¬ 
crease its endowment and enhance its prestige as it celebrated the 
year 1940 as its Golden Jubilee year. The year 1933 brought the re¬ 
tirement of President Pell, who became president emeritus. Dr. 
Pell retired in January and Dr. Edward Moseley Gwathmey was in¬ 
augurated as his successor at the commencement exercises. Wofford 
College celebrated its 75th commencement in 1933. This college in 
1940 was to attain the coveted recognition of membership in America’s 
outstanding learned fraternity, Phi Beta Kappa. 


284 


A History of Spartanburg County 


From Highways In material progress the years immediately follow- 
to Skyways ing t h e war showed such rapid growth as had 

never before been known in the city of Spartanburg—a new sky¬ 
scraper, a new Federal building, apartment houses, warehouses, rail¬ 
way shops worth $2,500,000, new school buildings and churches, new 
manufacturing plants, another hospital, suburban extensions. At the 
close of the war there was not a real park in the county. In 1931 the 
city owned Duncan Park, Cleveland Park, Rainbow Lake and Park, 
and six public playgrounds. Camp Wadsworth Memorial Park was 
still a dream, but assured of future realization. 

Not merely in these additions to the city’s wealth did people find 
grounds for rejoicing. Running through the history of Spartanburg 
always was the determination of her citizens to extend communica¬ 
tions and means of transportation. On Monday night, February 17, 
1930, WSPA, a Spartanburg radio station, sent over the ether waves 
the first commercial broadcast made in the State of South Carolina. 
With this broadcast another set of spokes was attached to the Hub— 
innumerable spokes linking the once remote back-country village with 
the ends of the earth. 

Even before the radio station began to operate, other great spokes 
stretched into the sky. Through the vision of Spartanburg builders, 
a cotton patch on the outskirts of the city was transformed into an 
airport, which was officially opened September 10, 1927, and was the 
first commercial airport in South Carolina, a fresh demonstration that 
here was a hub city. So rapidly did aviation develop that expansion 
was soon necessary, and today the field with its equipment has cost 
more than a quarter of a million dollars, and even more improvements 
are being planned to care for increasing needs. The field covers 105 
acres, has paved runways, capacious hangars, offices and waiting 
rooms, a Federal weather bureau and airways radio station and flying 
school, under the Civil Aeronautics Authority. It is also the seat of a 
privately managed Palmetto Air School, and numbers of inhabitants 
of the county maintain private planes, which are housed in its hangars. 

In Spartanburg originated the Sunday morning breakfast meet¬ 
ings, frequently enjoyed by fliers of the Carolinas and Georgia. Wing¬ 
ing their way through what seem to a civilian the trackless skyways, 
what a contrast these visitors present to the first explorers and set¬ 
tlers, with their saddle horses and covered wagons! 


These Latter Days 


285 


Since 1931 The nation-wide depression was felt in Spartanburg the 
more keenly because of preceding prosperity. Its effects have not 
entirely disappeared, for many citizens yet are suffering from the 
effects of their losses in the financial panic of 1929. It has been said 
that Spartanburg was the hardest hit city in the nation, and that the 
subsequent recovery has been all the more remarkable on that account. 

These latter days are so close that an attempt to write their history 
would be a mistake. Thoughtful citizens must be daily impressed by 
what they learn through the press, the radio, and their own obser¬ 
vations, with a realization that the spirit of pluck, endurance, and 
perseverance which led their ancestors to choose the word Spartan 
as a characterizing epithet is as appropriate today as it was in 1775, 
to county and county seat. 


BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTES 


No detailed list of all the sources consulted in the preparation of this 
history is here presented. All available documents and reports—Federal, State, 
County, and Municipal Records; directories and handbooks; church books; 
scrapbooks and clippings files—have been carefully examined. The facts tabu¬ 
lated from these sources have served as the bony framework of this structure. 

The files of local newspapers have provided the flesh and blood which have 
given life to the narrative. Without the carefully preserved files of the Caro¬ 
lina Spartan, the Express, the Herald, and the Journal, this book could not 
have been written. From these files many transcripts have been made by the 
staff of the Spartanburg Unit, South Carolina Writers’ Project, and deposited 
in local libraries. Such transcripts as are in the Kennedy Free Library are 
indicated,in the list below by the asterisk. 

Supplementary details have been gathered from manuscript materials— 
which have been far less abundant than would be expected, but yet valuable. 

Of the hundreds of pamphlets, books, and articles consulted in preparing 
this book a selected list of those most valuable follows. Only brief notes are 
appended in cases where their value seemed clear. 

Newspaper Files are to be found as follows: 

The Spartanburg Journal (1842-1843) was the first newspaper in the town. 
H. B. Carlisle has one copy of the issue dated March 25, 1843, and labelled 
Vol. II, No. VI. Notes from this issue may be seen in the Transcripts at 
the Kennedy Free Library. 

The Carolina Spartan (founded 1843) 1848-1893, with several breaks. Scat¬ 
tered copies or extracts before 1848 have been found in scrapbooks. The 
Kennedy Free Library has files of Feb. 13, 1849-Dec. 25, 1851; Feb. 28, 
1856-Dec. 1, 1864; Feb. 1, 1866-Dec. 27, 1876 (with several long breaks). 
The Wofford College Library has files of June 2, 1853-Feb. 18, 1856; Jan. 
8 , 1879-Dec. 27, 1893. 

The Spartanburg Express (1853-1862; 1866-1872). No files are to be found 
in Spartanburg. The Gaffney Public Library has a partial file for 1859. 
The University of South Carolina Library has files of Jan. 4, 1860-Apr. 23, 
1862, with twenty or mGre pages missing at various intervals. The Ken¬ 
nedy Free Library has only a few scattered copies, not bound, between 
Aug. 13, 1857, and Dec. 17, 1857. Several items from this paper have 
been found in scrapbooks. 

The Spartanburg Herald (Weekly 1875-1897; Daily since 1890). The burn¬ 
ing of the Herald-Journal Building, Dec. 6, 1918, destroyed the files of 
this paper except two partly bound volumes for 1917-1918. The University 
of South Carolina Library has files of 1875-1877. The Wofford College 
Library has a file 1881-1882. The Kennedy Free Library has files of Jan. 
1906-Jan. 1912; July 1913-June 1915; July 1918-Dec. 1921. The Herald- 
Journal Company has complete files since 1917. 

The Piedmont Headlight (1892-1902). No files are available; but many scat¬ 
tered copies have been found, as well as extracts in scrapbooks. 

The Spartanburg Journal (Daily except Sunday, 1900 to date). This paper 
absorbed the Carolina Spartan, and the Evening Star (successor to the 

286 



Bibliographical Notes 


287 


Free Lance, which followed the Piedmont Headlight). In 1913 the Journal 
was bought by the Herald Publishing Company, and since that time the 
Sunday edition has been called the Herald-Journal. The Kennedy Free 
Library has files of Jan. 1915-June 1915, and the Herald-Journal has files 
since 1917. 

Especial mention should be made of the Clipping Files of the Chamber of 
Commerce, the Young Men’s Christian Association, the John Floyd Estate, Ben 
Hill Brown, and the Scrapbooks of the Cowpens Chapter, D. A. R., H. B. 
Carlisle, J. D. Bailey, B. F. Perry, R. J. Gantt, T. M. Craig (all of Spartan¬ 
burg), Mrs. S. A. K. Hughes (of Woodruff), J. H. Sullivan (of Laurens 
County), the Fairforest Chapter, D. A. R. (of Union), the Historical Foun¬ 
dation (Montreat, N. C.). 

Books, Pamphlets, and Articles are listed by authors alphabetically: 
Allaire, LiEuT. Anthony: Diary. In L. C. Draper’s Kings Mountain and Its 
Heroes, pp. 484-515 (q. v.). 

Asbury, Rev. Francis : Journal of Rev. Francis Asbury, Bishop of the Metho¬ 
dist Episcopal Church. New York, published by Lane & Scott. Joseph 
Longking, Printer. 1852. 3 Volumes, with Index. There is also an edition 
published 1821. N. Y. M. E. Church. 

Babcock, J. W. : Article “Public Charity in South Carolina”—pp. 43-63 in 
South Carolina Handbook—2nd edition. 1908. Tribute to “Samuel Farrow 
(1760-1824) Founder, Father of the Asylum,” with portrait, p. 61. 

Bailey, John Davis (Rev 7 .): Centennial Paper: The Pioneer Ministry of 
Broad River Baptist Association, (Minutes Centennial Association held at 
Gaffney, S. C., August 1900.) pp. 26-32. 

-: Cowpens and Wofford’s Iron Works—Historical Addresses. 28 pp. 

-: History of Grindal Shoals — and—Some Early Adjacent Families. Gaff¬ 
ney, S C. The Ledger Printing Co. (Privately published, n. d.) 85 pp. 

-: Reverends Philip Midkey and James Fcnvler—The Story of the First 

Baptist Church in Upper South Carolina. Gaffney, S. C. The Ledger 
Printing Co. Privately published, “Cowpens, S. C., June 1924.” 26 pp. 

-: Some Heroes of the American Revolution. Band & White, Printers, 

Spartanburg, S. C. 1924. 287 pp. 

Bobo, Simpson: Inauguration of the Spartanburg Female College on the 22 nd 
of August 1855 , with the address on that occasion by W. Gilmore Simms, 
Esq., to which are prefixed an account of the institution, its faculty, course 
of study, and terms of instruction. By S. Bobo, Esq., President of the 
Board of Trustees. Spartanburg, S. C. Published by the Trustees, 1855. 
James & Williams, Printers. Charleston, S. C. 62 pp. 

Boggs, John: The Southern Christian. (A Memoir of Anthony Jefferson 
Pearson.) Ezra Collier. New York. 1835. 153 pp. 

Carlisle, J. H.: Addresses, 1825 - 1909 . The State Company, Publishers. Co¬ 
lumbia, S. C. 1910. 252 pp. 

♦Carson, SalliE M.: Reminiscences of the Church of the Advent. Amend¬ 
ments and comments added by Mrs. H. H. Legare of Walhalla, a daughter 
of J. L. McCollough. Manuscript in archives of the Church of the Advent, 
Spartanburg, S. C.; lent for use of the Writers’ Project. 17 typewritten 
pages. 






288 


A History of Spartanburg County 


Chesney, Alexander (1756-1845) : The Journal of Alexander Chesney. (A 
South Carolina Loyalist in the Revolution and after.) Edited by E. Alfred 
Jones (q. v.). 166 pp. 

♦Cottrell, Joseph B.: Reminiscential Chit-Chat. These articles appeared in 
the Carolina Spartan at irregular intervals, between May 20, 1885, and 
May 14, 1890, and supplied valuable details concerning Spartanburg in 
the 40’s. 

Cowpens Centennial Committee, 1896: Proceedings at Unveiling of the 
Battle Monument in Spartanburg. In commemoration of the centennial of 
the Battle of Cowpens. Cowpens Centennial Committee. 137 pp. 

Chreitzberg, A. M.: Early Methodism in the Carolinas. Publishing House 
of the Methodist Church, S. 1897. Nashville, Term. 364 pp. 

Davis, E. Gibson: (Pastor-Compiler.) Centennial Booklet — First Baptist 
Church of Spartanburg, South Carolina. One hundredth anniversary num¬ 
ber. 1839-1939. 69 pp. 

Dean, Mary Owen: Diary. MS. copy owned by Mrs. W. B. Lyles. 

♦Derwent (pseudonym) : Historic Views of Spartanburg, or Facts and Memo¬ 
ries of Eighty Years. This series of five articles appeared in the Carolina 
Spartan, March 27, April 17, April 24, May 8, May 15, 1856. Who was 
the actual author is not known. The editor vouches for the reliability of 
these articles, which are almost indispensable source matter. 

Draper, Lyman C: Kings Mountain and Its Heroes: A history of the Battle 
of Kings Mountain, October 7, 1780, and the events which led to it. New 
York. Dauber & Pine Bookshops, 1929. XV (16), 612 pp., front., illus., 
plates, ports., maps, and plans. Appendix: Allaire’s Diary. Note: a fac¬ 
simile reprint of the 1881 edition. Cincinnati, Ohio. P. G. Thomson, 1881. 

Drayton, John : A View of South Carolina, as respects her natural and civil 
concerns. Charleston, S. C. W. P. Young, Publisher, 1802. 253 pp., 

illus., charts, tables, and maps. 

Edmonds, Richard Hathaway: Facts About the South. Manufacturers’ Rec¬ 
ord, 1907. (Pamphlet.) 

FikE, Pierre H.: (Co-author, Capt. Joseph Lawlor) : History of Company F, 
n 8 th Infantry—Hampton Guards — 30 th Division. World War. 1919. 
Band & White, Printers, Spartanburg, S. C. 80 pp. 

♦Ford, Lyman H.: Public Schools of Spartanburg, S. C., First Annual Report 
of the City Schools. 1887. 

♦Gaffney, Michael : Journal of Captain Michael Gaffney. Manuscript. 
Owner, Miss Cora D. Wilkins, 308 Victoria Avenue, Gaffney, S. C. 

♦Gage, Robert J.: Idle Moments in an Old Library. A series of Papers writ¬ 
ten for the Union Times in the seventies; reprinted in the Union Times’ 
Souvenir Edition, Union, S. C., Dec. 17, 1897, under the title “Reminis¬ 
cences of Early Settlers.” A particularly valuable item in this series is 
“The Battle of Cowpens,” in which a fragment of a genuine Revolutionary 
ballad is incorporated. 

♦-: Memoir of Major Thomas Young. The Orion III, pp. 84-88 and 

100-105 (October and November 1843). This is the original appearance in 
print of this memoir, which has been several times reprinted. Judge Robert 



Bibliographical Notes 


289 


Gage of Union, S. C.,—a cultured and wealthy citizen of Union—contrib¬ 
uted it to the Orion with these introductory words ( Orion III, pp. 84-88) : 
“We will present the record in his own words, etc.” A note at the end 
runs thus: “If the perusal of this sketch should give as much pleasure to 
the reader as its preparation has given to us, we shall be amply repaid. 
May the venerable patriot’s life be spent in peace, etc.” Young was then 
79 years old. 

Gibbs, Robert Wilson: Documentary History of the American Revolution: 
Consisting of letters and papers relating to the contest for liberty, chiefly 
in South Carolina, from originals in the possession of the editor and other 
sources. New York. D. Appleton & Co. (etc.), 1855 Vol. I, 1764-1776; 
292 pp. Vol. II, 1776-1782, 1857; 293 pp. Vol. Ill, 1781-1782, 1853; 288 
pp. (Volumes II and III, Columbia, S. C.) 

Griffith, Harrison Patiulo: Life and Times of Rev. John G. Landrum. 
H. B. Garner, Publisher. 710 Arch Street, Phila., Pa. 1885. 298 pp. 

-: Variosa. A collection of Sketches, Essays, and Verses. 1911. Pri¬ 
vately printed. 266 pp. 

-: John S. Bsell—His Life and Times. Greenville, S. C. 1905. 

♦Hale, Columbus F.: Diary of Journey from Charleston to the Old Fort 
Prince Section in the Sumtnei — 1804 . (12 typewritten pages) Transcript 

of Manuscript. (Manuscript loaned by J. Hamlin White, Spartanburg, 

S. C.) 

Hammond, Harry (Major) : South Carolina Resources — Population — Institu¬ 
tions — Industries. The State Board of Agriculture. 1883. Charleston, 
S. C. Walker, Evans & Cogswell Press. Major Harry Hammond was 
assigned to investigate cotton culture for the Tenth Census Report. His 
report, containing “a vast amount of other (than cotton culture data) well- 
ordered detail of economic and sociological value,” was incorporated in 
Volume XIII, Part VI, pp. 451-526 of the Tenth Census Report. Much 
of this matter was incorporated in South Carolina Resources. 

Henry, James E: Myra Cunningham. Nine Chapters. According to O’Neall’s 
sketch of Henry, (Bench & Bar, II, 524) “Between ’21 and ’25 he wrote a 
pretty little novelette called Myra Cunningham. This was published by 
Patrick Carey at Yorkville, first in his paper, and afterwards in book form. 
It attracted great attention.” This romance appeared again in the Mag¬ 
nolia in installments beginning May 1839. It introduces much Spartanburg 
Revolutionary history and atmosphere. 

-: Talcs of the Packolette. Written for the Magnolia or Southern 

Monthly, published by P. C. Pendleton, editor and proprietor. Savannah, 
Ga. This series of sketches began in Vol. Ill, 1841, p. 230. Henry, in a 
prefatory note speaks of this as his “first literary venture,” and says he 
based it on his experiences during a season spent at' Packolette Springs. 
A letter signed “Puritan,” dated Savannah, Ga., May 26, 1841, appears on 
page 285, bitterly attacking the moral tone of this work and of Simms’ 
Loves of the Driver. Other articles of Henry’s appeared anonymously in 
Orion and Magnolia, as well as the Carolina Spartan. 

HowE, Rev. George : History of the Presbyterian Church in South Carolina. 
Prepared by order of the synod of South Carolina. Columbia, S. C. Duffie 
& Chapman, 1870, 1883. (Two Volumes. Vol. I, 709 pp.; Vol. II, 789 pp.) 





290 


A History of Spartanburg County 


-: The Scotch-Irish, and Their First Settlements on the Tyger River 

and Other Neighboring Precincts in South Carolina. A centennial dis¬ 
course delivered at Nazareth Church, Spartanburg District, South Carolina, 
Sept. 14, 1861. Columbia, S. C. Southern Guardian Steampower press, 
1861, 31 pp. 

*Hoy, William, of Reidville, S. C., contributed a series of invaluable chatty 
reminiscences to the Carolina Spartan, Sept. 23, 1891-Dec. 20, 1893. Hoy 
justifiably claimed that his papers would provide more facts than the church 
historians had published concerning school teachers and preachers. 

Hurt, Wilson N.: Memorial to Rev. Thomas Bomar. 1837. Spartanburg, 
S. C. 

Hyatt, Allen: Spartanburg County and Reconstruction. M. A. Thesis, Wof¬ 
ford College. 60 pp. 

Jackson, George Pullen: White Spirituals in the Southern Uplands. The 
Story of the Fasola Folk—their Songs, Singings, and “Buckwheat Notes.” 
Chapel Hill. 1933. University of N. C. 444 pp. 

Jolly, Richard M.: The Story of My Reminiscences. 1924. Privately printed. 
96 pp. A very valuable item for the student of social history. 

Jones, E. Alfred (Editor) : The Journal of Alexander Chestiey, a South 
Carolina Loyalist in the Revolution and After. Published by the Univer¬ 
sity of Ohio. Columbus, Ohio. (The Ohio State Univ. Bull., Vol. XXVI.) 
Oct. 30, 1921. 166 pp. Introduction by Professor Wilbur H. Siebert. 

Jones, F. Dudley: (Co-author, W. H. Mills)— History of the Presbyterian 
Church in South Carolina Since 1850 . Published by the Synod of South 
Carolina. 1926. The R. L. Bryan Co. Columbia, S. C. 1094 pp. Con¬ 
tains a valuable continuation of Howe’s History of the Presbyterian 
Church in South Carolina by the Rev. W. S. Bean, with supplementary 
sketches of communities, schools, and churches prepared or edited by F. D. 
Jones and W. H. Mills. 

Kennedy, John Pendleton: Horse-Shoe Robinson, A Tale of the Tory As¬ 
cendency in South Carolina. 1835. Reprinted by Burt and Company. 483 
pp. Reprinted May 10, 1896, as a double number of Standard Literature 
Series by the University Publishing Company, New York. 190 pp. 

Kohn, August: Cotton Mills of South Carolina. Daggett Printing Co., 
Charleston, S. C. 1907. 228 pp. These sketches are accepted as authori¬ 
tative. They are reprints of letters to the News and Courier based on 
Kohn's careful personal investigations. 

Landrum, J. B. O.: Colonial and Revolutionary History of Upper South Caro¬ 
lina, embracing for the most part the primitive and colonial history of the 
territory comprising the original county of Spartanburg with a general 
review of the entire military operations in the upper portions of South 
Carolina and portions of North Carolina. Greenville, S. C. Shannon & Co. 
1897. vii, iv. 364 pp. 

-: History of Spartanburg County—embracing an account of many 

important events, and biographical sketches of statesmen, diinnes, and 
other public men, and the names of many others worthy of record in the 
history of their county. Atlanta, Ga. Franklin Printing and Publishing 
Co. 1900. vii, 739 pp. 




Bibliographical Notes 


291 


Lawlor, Captain Joseph: (Co-author) See Pierre H. Fike. 

LiEBER, Oscar Montgomery: Reports on the Geognostic Survey of South 
Carolina. 1856-1860. Columbia, S. C. General Assembly 1860. 

Lockwood, Thomas P.: Geography of South Carolina. Adapted to the use of 
schools and families: Comprising a distinct chorographical account of 
each District, interspersed with historical anecdotes. A general view of the 
State; embracing its natural features, government, inhabitants, towns and 
villages, spas, minerals, the state of education and religion; ztrith a sketch of 
its agricultural and commercial and natural history. With a map of the 
State. 16 mo.—135 pp. Copyright, Charleston; J. S. Burgess, 44 Queen 
Street. 1832. 

Logan, John H.: A History of the Upper Country of South Carolina, from 
the earliest periods to the close of the War of Independence. Charleston, 
S. C. Walker, Evans & Co., Charleston, and P. B. Glass, Columbia, S. C., 
Publishers, 1859. Vol. I, xi & i, 521 pp. 

-: Logan’s Manuscripts. Volume II, in manuscript form, fell into Ly¬ 
man C. Draper’s hands, and extracts of it have been published in Histori¬ 
cal Collections of Joseph Habersham Chapter, D. A. R. Vol. Ill, 117 pp; 
after p. 172. Atlanta, Ga. Charles P. Byrd, State Printer, 1910. 

Logan, John R.: Sketches, Historical and Biographical, of the Broad River 
and Kings Mountain Baptist Associations, 1800-1882. Shelby, N. C. 605 
pp. This work is based to some extent on early minutes of Broad River 
Association, apparently no longer in existence. 

Lossing, Benson J.: The Pictorial Field-Book of the Revolution; or, Illus¬ 
trations, by Pen and Pencil, of the History, Biography, Scenery, Relics, and 
Traditions of the War for Independence. With eleven hundred engravings 
on wood, by Lossing and Barritt, chiefly from original sketches by the 
author. . . . New York, Harper & Bros. 1859-1860. 2 Volumes: (Vol. 
I, 783 pp., 1859; Vol. II, 772 pp„ 1860.) 

Mackey, Albert G. (allatin) M. D.: The History of Freemasonry in South 
Carolina From Its Origin in the Year 1/36 to the Present Time, Etc. 
Written at the request of the Grand Lodge of Ancient Freemasons of South 

Carolina. By .. grand secretary of the grand lodge. Columbia, 

S. C. South Carolina Steampower Press, 1861. Charleston, S. C. Walker, 
Evans & Cogswell Co. Reprinted for Solomon’s Lodge No. 1, A. F. M., 
1936. 

MarchmonT, John: (pseudonym): See Celina E. Means. 

McCrady, Edward : The History of South Carolina in the Revolution, 1775- 
1780. New York. The MacMillan Co. London, MacMillan & Co., Ltd. 
1901. XXXIII, 899 pp. front., maps (1 fold) plans. 

McJunkin, Joseph: Reminiscences. First appeared in the Magnolia, January 
1843. Again printed, from James H. Saye’s manuscript, in the Piedmont 
Headlight, Spartanburg, S. C., Sept. 9, 1898, which may be found in a 
scrapbook presented to the Kennedy Free Library by the Reverend J. D. 
Bailey. Rev. James H. Saye (in a note to J. H. Logan, Sept. 23, 1858) 

. wrote: “You will find his (Major Mcjunkin’s) narrative in the January 
number of the Magnolia, 1843, by Judge O’Neall. Some things are in that 
which were put in one published by myself at a subsequent period.” 




292 


A History of Spartanburg County 


Means, Celina E. (John Marchmont) : Thirty-Four Years. Claxt'on, Rera- 
sen & Haffelfinger, Phila., 1878. 336 pp. The action of this book takes 
place in Spartanburg and Union Counties chiefly, and introduces actual 
events of the Ku Klux period. The social atmosphere is said to be a faith¬ 
ful presentation of that of Glenn Springs, Union, and Spartanburg. 

-: Palmetto Stories—A Reader For the Fifth Grade. (With the editorial 

assistance of Wm. H. Hand, Supt. of Schools, Chester, S. C.) MacMillan 
Co. New York, 1914. 244 pp. “A Story of Indian Warfare” (pp. 94- 
103) is a graphic account; the scene is laid at the famed Block House. 
“Ferguson’s Defeat” (pp. 181-183) is a genuine Revolutionary ballad. 

McGhee, Zach : The Dark Corner. Grafton Press. New York, 1908. 206 
pp. An interesting and valuable fictional treatment of fact material on some 
flimsy educational institutions of the 80’s and 90’s. 

Mills, Robert: Atlas of the State of South Carolina made under the authority 
of the Legislature. Published by the State, 1826. 27 plates. 

-: Statistics of South Carolina including a view of its natural, civil and 

military history, general and particular. Charleston, S. C. Hurlbut & 
Lloyd, 1826. 782 pp. 48 pp. appendix with map. 

Mills, W. H.: (Co-author.) See Dudley F. Jones. 

♦Mitchell, W. H.: “Spartanburg in the Revolution.” Carolina Spartan, Oc¬ 
tober 7, 1858. This article on Fort Prince contains a transcript of a com¬ 
missary’s book kept at this fort during part of the year 1776 by James 
Jordan, who was afterwards one of the first county commissioners and 
legislators. 

-: “The Rabys.” Carolina Spartan, November 4, 1858. This story, 

dealing with the “great nigger skeer” of 1832, has a well-constructed melo¬ 
dramatic plot and is of value for its depiction of social customs in the “back 
country.” 

Moore, T. J.: Reminiscences of Nazareth Church Cemetery atid Family Burial 
Grounds. A discourse delivered by Colonel T. J. Moore at the church on 
Thanksgiving Day, November 26th, 1908, and published by request of the 
congregation. Spartanburg, S. C. Band & White, Printers, 1909. 26 pp. 
Reprinted in: William Anderson and Rebecca Denny and Their Descend¬ 
ants. 1706-1914. Columbia, S. C. R. L. Bryan, 1914. pp. 251-278. 

O’Neall, John Belton : Biographical Sketches of the Bench and Bar of South 
Carolina. Courtney & Co. 2 Volumes. Charleston, S. C., 1859. 

-: “Poetry of the Revolution.” The Orion, Vol. II, pp. 322-326 inch 

March-April 1843. The index lists this article under the title “Revolu¬ 
tionary Poetry.” It' contains a fragment of “Cowpens, composed by Briggs 
and sung on the field the morning after the battle, etc.” 

Perry, Benjamin F.: Revolutionary Sketches. A series of articles published 
in the Carolina Spartan during 1879. Perry (in Greenville Enterprise, 
Oct. 2, 1872) named Samuel Earle as his best informant on Revolutionary 
history. Samuel Earle was captain of a company of Rangers in the Revo¬ 
lutionary War, and was a member of the State Convention to frame a 
constitution. “No one,” says Perry, “in the upper country knew so well 
as he did the Revolutionary history of the State and the early settlements 
of the back country.” 






Bibliographical Notes 


293 


-: Reminiscences of Public Men. John D. Avril & Co., 1883. 320 pages 

with index. 

-: Biographical Sketches of Eminent Statesmen, with speeches, addresses 

and letters. Ferbee Press. 609 pp. Philadelphia, 1887. 

-: Reminiscences of Public Men, with speeches and addresses. (Second 

Series.) Shannon & Company, Printers, Greenville, S. C., 1889. 397 pp. 

Ramsay, David: History of South Carolina from its earliest settlement in 
1670 to the year 1808. 2 vols. Charleston, S. C., 1809. David Longworth. 

602 pp. 

Reynolds, John S.: Reconstruction in South Carolina, 1865-1877. The State 
Company, Columbia, S. C. 522 pp. 

. Rushton, Jessie Eleanor: (Thesis: University of South Carolina.) The 
Development of Education in Spartanburg County Prior to 1876. 87 type¬ 
written pages. 

SayE, Rev. James H.: Memoirs of Major Joseph McJunkin, Revolutionary 
Patriot. First printed in the Richmond, Va., Watchman and Observer in 
1847; reprinted by the Greenwood, S. C., Index-Journal, 1925. Reprinted 
also in 1898 in the Piedmont Headlight, Spartanburg, S. C., from the origi¬ 
nal manuscript (lent for that purpose by the Reverend John D. Bailey, to 
whom the widow of James H. Saye gave it) ; reprinted from the Headlight 
“forms” in pamphlet form—100 copies—for Bailey. 43 pages and index. 
See letter from Bailey in scrapbook in Kennedy Free Library—printed in 
Headlight, Aug. 3, 1898. One of the most valuable sources for upper 
South Carolina Revolutionary history. 

Schwensen, Kai: The History of the 102nd M. P. Privately printed by 
subscription, 1919. 78 pp. 

Shipp, Albert M.: History of Methodism in South Carolina. Southern Meth¬ 
odist Publishing House, Nashville, Term., 1882. 648 pp. 

Simkins, Francis B.: The Tillman Movement in South Carolina. Duke Univ. 
Press, Durham, N. C., 1926. 274 pp. with index. 

Simms, William Gilmore: South Carolina in the Revolutionary War. Charles¬ 
ton, S. C. Published by the author, 1853. 

-: Addresses, Etc. See Simpson Bobo (supra). 

Smith, Charles Forster: “Random Thoughts of Spartanburg and Wofford 
College“Rev. Whitefoord Smith, D. D.” Two articles reprinted in the 
Spartanburg Herald, August 5 and August 12, 1917, from the Southern 
Christian Advocate of 1872. 

Snowden, Yates : History of South Carolina ... in collaboration with 
H. G. Cutler . . . and an editorial advisory board including special con¬ 
tributors . . . Chicago and New York. The Lewis Publishing Co. 6 vols., 
fronts., illus., (including maps, facsimiles) ports., 1920. Vols. III-V, biog¬ 
raphy. 

Snyder, Henry Nelson: “How and Why Wofford Came To Be;” address 
delivered Nov. 5, 1937, before the historical societies of the two South 
Carolina Conferences held in Newberry, November 3-7, 1937. In Year 
Book, Upper South Carolina Conference, M. E. Church, South, 1937. 
pp. 83-91. 






294 


A History of Spartanburg County 


Starlight, Alexander: The Pictorial Record of the 27 th Diznsion. Compiled 
by Alexander Starlight, formerly of Signal Corps, U. S. A., with many 
illustrations from photographs. Harper & Bros., Publishers, New York 
and London. 1919. The cover has an interesting illustration based on the 
constellation of Orion (O’Ryan) and the monogram formed by the letters 
N Y D. 

StEdman, C.: The History of the Origin, Progress, and Termination of the 
American War. Two vols. Dublin, 1794. Vol. I, 399 pp.; Vol. II, 449 
pp. and index. 

Tarleton, Colonel Banastre: History of the Campaigns of 1780 and 1781 in 
the Southern Provinces of North America. 1787. 

Taylor, Thomas (Mrs.), Editor: South Carolina Women in the Confederacy. 
Columbia, S. C. The State Company, 1903. 413 pp. 

TennEnt, Rev. William : “Fragment of a Journal Kept by . . . Describ¬ 
ing his Journey, in 1775, to Upper South Carolina, at the request of the 
Council of Safety.” In Year Book, City of Charleston, 1894. pp. 296-312. 

Thompson, Henry T.: Ousting the Carpetbagger from South Carolina. R. L. 
Bryan Co., 1926. 177 pp. 

TuomEy, M.: Report on the Geology of South Carolina. Columbia, S. C., 1848. 
Printed for the State by A. S. Johnston. 293 pp. 

Townsend, Leah : South Carolitia Baptists, 1670 - 1805 . The Florence Printing 
Company, Florence, S. C., 1935. 7 Chapters, w. bib. and index. Contains 
map of Baptist Churches in South Carolina prior to 1805, with location 
and date of construction. Compiled by Leah Townsend, drawing by E. 
Lamar Holman. 391 pp. 

Trenholm, W. L.: “The History and Present Condition of Transportation in 
South Carolina.” Chapter VII, PP- 611-640 in South Carolina Resources 
and Population, Institutions and Industries. Published by the State Board 
of Agriculture of South Carolina, Charleston, S. C. Walker, Evans & 
Cogswell, 1883. 762 pp. 

Van Deusen, John G.: Economic Bases of Disunion in South Carolina. New 
York, Columbia University Press, 1928, with map. 360 pp. 

Viator (pseudonym) : This signature was affixed to a series of letters in the 
Carolina Spartan in the early fifties defending denominational colleges 
against attacks made on them by X Press. An unsigned letter in the 
Carolina Spartan said Viator was J. Wofford Tucker, and T. Stobo Far¬ 
row was X Press, afterwards editor of the Express. 

Wait, Jane Woeford (Mrs.) : History of the Wofford Family. Direct de¬ 
scendants of Captain Joseph Wofford. Contributors: Mrs. Jane Wofford 
Wait, Captain John W. Wofford, Mrs. Carrie Wofford Floyd. 1928. Spar¬ 
tanburg, S. C. Band & White, Printers. 268 pp. 

Walker, William (“Singing Billy”) : Southern Harmony and Musical Com¬ 
panion. (A songbook.) 1835. Nathan Whiting, New Haven, Conn, 
xxxii and 216 pp. Various editions. For a detailed bibliographical ac¬ 
count' see Jackson’s White Spirituals, Etc. p. 61 ff. 

-: Christian Harmony. Miller’s Bible and Publishing House., Phila.,. 

1866. A second edition, 1873. xv and 361 pp. 



Bibliographical Notes 


295 


Wallace, David Duncan : History of South Carolina. (3 vols.) The 
American Historical Society, Inc., New York, 1934. Vol. I, 462 pp; Vol. 
II, 510 pp; Vol. Ill, 579 pp. Volume IV, comprising biographical sketches, 
was not prepared by Dr. Wallace, but by the publishers. While not in 
itself authoritative, it provides much valuable help to an investigator. 

-: “The Census in Southern Agriculture.” Published in Popular Science 

Monthly, January 1904. 

-: A Communication in the Hispanic American Historical Review. Dur¬ 
ham, N. C. Duke Univ. Press, August 1936. 

Woodruff, A. B.: History of Bethel Church. In Spartanburg Baptist Asso¬ 
ciation Minutes, 1882. Greenville, S. C., 1882. 

X Press (pseudonym) : T. Stobo Farrow, advancing theory that educational 
institutions should be State controlled, and condemning denominational 
schools, waged a bitter controversy in the Spartan of the fifties with Viator 
(J. W. Tucker). 


















INDEX 


Abner’s Creek Baptist Church, 85. 
Agricultural and Mechanical Society, 
190. 

Agricultural Societies and Fairs, 106. 
Agriculture, 51, 183, 184, 185, 202. 
Airline Junction (later Hayne), 205. 
Airline Railroad, 163, 170, 171. 
Airport, 284. 

Alexander family, 15. 

Anderson’s Mill, 37. 

Anderson family, 15, 22. 

Arkwright' Mill, 218. 

Armistice, 256; anniversary, 272. 

Art, 230, 231, 232. 

Asbury, Francis, 46, 47, 83, 103. 

• Asheville (N. C.), stages from, 105. 
Associate Reformed Presbyterians, 
214. 

Association, The, 19, 21. 

Back Country, 19. 

Ballenger’s Road, 52. 

Banks, first, 204, 205. 

Baptists, 16, 19, 59, 84, 87, 110, 124, 
214. 

Barbecues, 21, 115, 158. 

Barksdale Factory, 76, 171. 

Barry, Andrew, 30, 40, 104. 

Barry, Kate, 32, 117. 

Barry family, 15. 

Bates, “Bloody,” 30, 31. 

Bates, William, 74, 76, 77. 

Battery B, 61st Regiment, C. A. C., 
234. 

Beaumont Mills, 218. 

Benson’s Mill, 170. 

Berwick’s Iron Works, 33, 67. 

Bethel Agricultural Society, 106, 168. 
Bethel Baptist Church, 16, 88, 106. 
Bethesda Church, 85, 132. 

Bethlehem Baptist Church, 83, 84, 107, 
108. 

Bible Society Conventions, 123. 

Bishop family, 22, 117. 

Bivings, James, 78, 79. 80. 

Bivingsville, 71, 78, 79, 81, 104, 125, 
129, 130, 170, 171. 

Black Code, 140. 

Blackstock’s, 17, 29. 

Blackstock Road, 14, 18, 29, 52, 236. 
Blackstock Volunteers, 128. 

Blake, William Kennedy, 113, 132, 146, 
147, 158, 159, 206, 222. 

Block House, 16, 18. 

Board of Trade, 205. 

Bobo, E. H., 164, 168. 

Bobo, Simpson, 58, 60, 78, 79, 80, 91, 
106, 126, 129, 135, 147, 159, 161, 168, 
169, 170, 212, 231. 


Boggs, John, 59, 61. 

Boiling Springs, 16, 49. 

Boiling Springs Baptist Church, 83, 84. 

Bomar, Elisha, 60, 61. 

Bomar, John E., 79, 80, 81, 110, 129, 
131, 161, 171, 213, 223. 

Bomar, M. M., 180. 

Bomar, Thomas, 96, 180. 

Bomar’s Old Field, 107, 125, 136. 

Brandon, Thomas, 23, 24, 25, 26, 28, 
29, 30, 32, 33. 

Brannon, James, 96, 121. 

Brewton, Jonas, 91, 131. 

Briant, Javan, 146, 147, 160. 

British forces, 22, 23, 24, 25, 27, 29. 

Brockman, Benjamin T., 128, 137. 

Brockman Guards, 128. 

Buck Creek Baptist Church, 84. 

Buena Vista, 77. 

Buffington, Joseph, 18, 35, 37, 67, 71. 

Buncombe Road, 18, 52, 173. 

Burnett, W. E., 218, 222, 223, 226. 

Burnt Factory, 74, 75, 76. 

Bushy Creek, revival at, 86. 

Camp Floyd, 238. 

Camp Hearon, 233. 

Camp Jackson, 234, 262, 265. 

Camp Joseph Walker, 217. 

Camp Meetings, 47, 85. 

Camp Oliver Edwards, 217. 

Camp Sevier, 234. 

Camp Wadsworth: establ. of, 236; 
magnitude of, 239; 27th Div. at, 
242; camp life, 242; dramatic inci¬ 
dents, 243; trenches constructed, 
245; camp newspapers, 245; Christ¬ 
mas at, 248; hardships of, 249; new 
conditions at, 252; officers’ training 
school, 252; a “melting pot,” 253; 6th 
Div. at; training school for nurses, 
254; 96th Div. at, 255; influenza epi¬ 
demic, 255; second winter at, 257; 
last days of, 258; camp hospital, 270; 
aftermath, 271. 

Campobello, 97, 205. 

Canby, E. S'. R., 146-148. 

Cannon, Gabriel, 80, 91, 106, 129, 141, 
143, 152, 153, 158, 160, 161, 168, 169. 

Cannon's Camp Ground, 85, 177, 192. 

Carlisle, Charles H., 205, 222. 

Carlisle, Charles W., 216. 

Carlisle, Howard B., 217, 231. 

Carlisle, James H., 84, 89, 95, 98, 126, 
177, 213, 220, 222, 231. 

Carlisle, John W., 140, 141, 146, 153, 
169. 

Carleton, Guy, 252, 258. 

Carolina, Clinchfield & Ohio Rwy., 
216, 274. 


297 



298 


Index 


Carolina Progressionist, 102. 

Carolina Spartan (see Spartan). 
Carpetbagger regime, 148. 

Cedar Hill Factory, 78, 171. 

Cedar Spring, 26, 27, 31, 50, 97, 124, 
129, 131, 179, 211. 

Cedar Spring Baptist Church, 50, 82, 
84. 

Cedar Spring Schools, 96. 

Centennial Pageant, 281. 

Central Methodist Church, 59, 214. 
Chalybeate Springs, 123. 

Chamberlain, Gov. Daniel H., 161. 
Charleston & Western Carolina Rwy., 
211, 274. 

Cherokee County, 21, 26, 35, 66, 119, 
156, 212. 

Cherokee Falls Cotton Factory, 71. 
Cherokee Guards, 128. 

Cherokee Iron Works, 170. 

Cherokee Indians, 14, 15, 22, 23. 
Cherokee Springs, 97, 123-125, 176, 
192. 

Cherokee Vigilant Society, 125. 
Chesney, Alexander, 13, 29. 

Christian Harmony, 101. 

Church of the Advent, 87, 109. 
Church of Christ on Jamey’s Creek, 
16. 

Churches, 58, 92, 124, 214. 

Civic Music Association, 230. 

Civil War, 17, 76, 77, 121, 124, 126, 
128, 129, 133, 134, 138, 140, 166, 175. 
Clark, Elijah, 15, 27, 31. 

Clemson College, 190, 200, 203, 261, 
277. 

Qeveland, Jesse, 55, 60, 61. 

Cleveland, John B„ 131, 147, 218, 221, 
222, 223, 236. 

Cleveland Park, 284. 

Clifton, 71, 205, 211. 

Clifton Cotton Mill, 201, 218. 

Coan family, 15. 

Coast Artillery, Co. Two, 233. 

Coast Defense, Co. Seven, 234. 
Cofield, George, 205, 221, 222, 226. 
Collins family, 15. 

Commencements, early, 120. 
Commercial fertilizers, 183. 

Community Development, in the 50’s, 
104. 

Company C, 117th Engineers, 235, 
264. 

Company F, 1st S. C. Infantry, 234. 
Confederate Government, 70, 73, 129, 
138. 

Confederate Monument, 216. 
Confederate Soldiers, return of, 138. 
Confederate Veterans, reunion of, 217. 
Congressional Investigating Commit¬ 
tee, 142, 154. 


Constitution, of 1865, 140; of 1868, 
i47. 

Convention, County Teachers, 180. 
Conventions, entertainment of, 64. 
Converse, Dexter E., 71, 79, 80, 81, 
171, 211, 222, 223, 283. 

Converse College, 106, 123, 201, 210, 
220, 222, 223, 226, 283. 

Converse College Choral Society, 227. 
Converse Heights, 123, 216. 
Cooper-Limestone Institute, 180. 
Co-Operationist, the, 91, 126. 

Cotton growing, 73, 167, 276. 

Cotton Manufacture, 71, 73, 74, 75, 
117, 171. 

Cottonseed oil mills, 185. 

Council of Safety, 11, 19, 21, 22. 
County Fair, the first, 106; Associa¬ 
tion, 191. 

County Health Department, 279. 
Court, County, 33, 34, 36, 37, 39, 40. 
Court Week, 42, 64. 

Courthouse, County, first building, 37; 
second building, 55; third building, 
110; fourth building, 211; focus of 
social life, 42. 

Cowmen, 15. 

Cowpens, 28, 29, 30, 47, 68, 107, 117, 
125, 130, 206, 207, 264. 

Cowpens Guards, 128. 

Crawfordsville Cotton Mill, 80, 170, 
171. 

Crescent Mill, 218. 

Cross Anchor, 97. 104, 129, 130, 176. 
Cunningham, “Bloody Bill,” 30, 31, 
67. 

Curtis, Thomas, 97. 

Curtis, William, 97, 110, 126, 180. 

Dark Corner, 149. 

Dark Summer, 24. 

Dean, Hosea J., 61, 63, 91, 111, 131. 
Democratic clubs, 158, 159, 161, 163. 
Democratic Party, 143, 158, 159. 
Dodd family, 15. 

Dow, Lorenzo, 85. 

Draft, the, 235. 

Drayton, John, 43, 44, 49, 54. 
Drayton, William Henry, 11, 12, 21, 
25, 67. 

Drayton Mill, 218. 

Duncan, D. R., 128, 131, 141, 152, 
153, 158, 159, 161, 218, 222, 223. 
Duncan Park, 284. 

DuPre, Daniel A., 213, 226. 

DuPre, Warren, 135. 

Earle, Bayliss, 16, 36. 

Earle, Bayliss, 46. 

Earle, Samuel, 31. 

Earle family, 16. 

Earle’s Fort, 16. 


Index 


299 


Earlesville, 16, 104. 

Education, adult, 224; agricultural, 
200; leadership in, 200; public, 82, 
99, 280. 

Edwards, Oliver E., 128, 133, 136, 137. 
Eighty-first (Wildcat) Division, 265. 
El Bethel Methodist Church, 215. 
Elections, in 1867, 145; in 1868, 148, 
158, 160; in 1876, 165. 

Emigration, 173. 

Enoree Rangers, 128. 

Episcopal Theological Seminary, 220. 
Episcopalians, 85, 109; churches, 124, 
179. 

Esther, 225. 

Eustatie School, 95. 

Evins, John H„ 107, 115, 136, 147, 
153, 158, 163, 164, 168, 169. 

Evins, S. N., 80, 90, 91, 129, 146. 
Evins Campaign Working Clubs, 163, 
164. 

Express, The, 106, 110, 114, 204. 

Fairfield Park, 191, 197, 233. 
Fairforest, 36, 205, 236. 

Fairforest Baptist Church, 16. 
Fairforest Presbyterian Church, 50. 
Fairforest Regiment (Second Spartan 
Regt), 23. 

Fairforest Shoals, 29. 

Farley, Hugh L., 195-196. 

Farmers, 183-188, 200. 

Farmers’ Alliance, 190, 192, 198. 
Farmers’ Institute, 190. 

Farmers’ Movement, 193. 

Farms, Experimental, 188. 

Farrow, James, 100, 129, 140, 141, 143. 
Farrow, Samuel, 45, 60, 95. 

Farrow, T. Stobo, 106, 131, 135, 136, 
147, 158, 164, 169, 177, 206. 
Ferguson, Patrick, 25, 26, 27 29, 31. 
Fifth Regiment, S. C. V., 127, 128, 
136. 

Finger, Joseph, 80, 81. 

Fingerville, 97, 104, 129, 171. 

Fire Department, 209. 

First Baptist Church, 61. 

Fleming, C. E„ 136, 205, 213, 218, 

221 , 222 . 

Fleming, Mrs. C. E., 216, 217. 
Fletchall, Thomas, 11, 16, 21. 

Floyd, John F., 200, 236, 259, 263. 
Floyd family, 22. 

Forest Rifles, 128, 136. 

Fort Prince, 15, 17, 97, 117. 

Fort Thicketty, 26-27. 

Forts, Revolutionary, 117. 
Forty-second (Rainbow) Division, 
235. 

Foster, Anthony, 47. 

Foster, B. B., 55, 84, 135. 

Foster, Gary Evans, 260. 


Foster, James W., 194-196. 

Foster, Joel, 147, 153, 160. 

Foster, Moses, 192, 194, 197. 

Foster, Rice, 146. 

Foster, William, 125, 128, 260. 
Foster, W. M., 160, 161, 168. 
Fredonia, 122. 

Freedmen’s Bureau, 149. 

Freeman, Edwin J., 267. 
Freemasonry, 82. 

Friendship Baptist Church, 16, 84. 
Fusionists, 162. 

Gaffney (Gaffney City), 48, 163, 205, 

212 . 

Gaffney family, 122, 131. 

Gaffney, Michael, 48, 49, 212. 

Gantt, T. Larry, 198-199. 

Gardening, ornamental, 109. 
Garlington, A. C., 136, 159. 

Garrett Springs (formerly Thomson’s 
Spring and later Rock Cliff), 175. 
Gaston family, 15. 

Gamewell, James A., 226. 

General Hospital, 279. 

Georgia Cleveland Home, 214. 
Georgia Road, 18, 52. 

Glendale (formerly Bivingsville), 18, 

67, 79. 196, 205, 211, 218. 

Glenn Springs, 36, 50, 97, 105, 124, 
131, 163, 175, 176, 192, 211. 

Glenn Springs Cavalry Troop, 122. 
Gold mining, 35, 173. 

Gold Star Mothers, list of, 270. 

Gold Star Widows, list of, 270. 
Good Samaritan Hospital, 214. 
Gowan’s Fort, 17, 26, 31. 
Gowansville, 17, 97, 104, 134. 

Grange (Patrons of Husbandry), 168, 
177, 183, 188, 190, 192. 

Grand Jury, 39, 40, 41. 

Great Cane Brake, engagement at, 22. 
Greek Orthodox Church, building of, 
214. 

Green Pond Baptist Church, 85. 
Green Spring (Cedar Spring), 31, 50. 
Grindal Shoals, 12, 13, 15. 

Guerry, Albert Capers, 231. 

Habeas Corpus, suspension of, 156. 
Hale, Columbus, 45, 46, 83. 

Hallman, S. T., 214. 

Hammond, Harry, 119, 183. 
Hampton, Wade (The Second), 45, 

68 , 122 . 

Hampton, Wade (The Third), 143, 
159, 162, 164, 196, 207. 

Hampton family, 16, 22. 

Hampton Guards, 234, 259, 262, 263. 
Hannon family, 16, 22. 

Harris Theatre, 213, 217. 

Haskell Manifesto and Convention, 
196. 


300 


Index 


Hearon, Charles O., 233, 236. 
Heinitsh, H. E., 206, 211, 222. 
Henry, James E., 57, 58, 60, 61, 75, 76, 
83, 231. 

Herald (Spartanburg), 177, 179, 204. 
Hill, Sollimon, 66. 

Hill’s factory, 73, 75, 76, 130, 170, 
171, 230. 

Hillsville, 205. 

Hite family, 22. 

Hobbysville, 104, 131. 

Holly Springs Baptist Church, 85. 
Home Guards, 134, 138. 

Homes, of 1804, 45; in the 50’s, 108, 
118, 119. 

Hospitals, 213. 

Howard Gap Road, 273. 

Hurricane Shoals (now Clifton), 15, 
69, 71, 97, 101, 104, 170. 
Hutchings, Thomas, 59, 74, 77, 78, 105, 
106. 

Ice, manufacture of, 204. 
Immigration Aid Societies, 173. 
Independent Order of Odd Fellows, 
113, 175. 

Indian Line, 15, 16, 17, 18, 22, 34, 35. 
Indian Massacre (of 1776), 23. 

Indian Traders, 12, 13, 14, 16. 
Indians, 16, 22, 29, 34, 117. 

Industry Manufacturing Company 
(Hill’s factory), 75. 

Inter-State Farmers’ Encampment, 
188, 189, 190, 192. 

Iron District Volunteers, 128. 

Iron Manufacturing, 18, 35, 66, 68, 
69, 70, 173. 

Irwin, W. M., 61, 151. 

Italian Immigrants, 173. 

Jackson family, 16. 

Jacksonborough Assembly, the, 33. 
Jail, first, 37; second, 63, 213; third, 
213. 

Jail Street (Wall St.), 213. 

Jamison family, 15. 

Jamison’s Fort, 17. 

Jewish Synagogue, 214. 
jillson, J. K., 179. 

John Bomar & Company, 80. 
John-Nina Hospital, 214. 

Jones, George, 59. 

Jordan, James, 15, 17, 36, 94, 100, 117. 

Kennedy, Benjamin, 128. 

Kennedy, L. C., 105, 147, 213, 231. 
Kennedy, Mrs. L. C., 131, 213. 
Kennedy Library, 213. 216. 

Kilgore, B. F., 106, 126, 158, 168, 169. 
Kilgore, Josiah, 77. 

Kings Mountain Guards, 128. 

Kings Mountain Iron Manufacturing 
Company, 68, 71. 


Kirby, A. H„ 59, 111. 

Kirby Hill, 175. 

Ku Klux Klan, 149, 152, 154, 155, 
156, 157, 160, 176. 

Ladies’ Mount Vernon Memorial As¬ 
sociation, 107. 

Lancaster, S. T. D., 192, 196. 
Lander, Samuel, 178. 

Landrum, J. B. O., 194, 195, 206. 
Landrum, John G., 59, 64, 88, 101, 
110, 126, 133, 231. 

Law, T. H., 210, 218. 

Lawson’s Fork Volunteers, 128. 
Legg, G. W. H„ 112, 123, 131, 135, 
141. 

Leitner, Elias C., and G., 79. 

Leo’s Foundry, 130. 

Lester’s Mill (later Beuna Vista), 77, 
171. 

Liberty Poles, in 1860, 125. 
Lightwood Knot Springs, 136. 
Limestone Springs, 49, 50, 68, 97, 122, 
123, 124, 146, 180, 212. 

Limestone Springs Company, 128. 
Limestone Springs Female High 
School, 97, 102, 125, 131. 

Limestone Springs Infantry, 128. 
Limestone Springs Male Academy, 
154. 

Limestone quarries, 35, 173. 

Lipscomb family, 122. 

Little, William, 129. 

Lockwood, Mrs. Belle, 131. 

Loyal League, 149. 

Loyalists, 22, 25, 26, 27, 29. 
Lutherans, 214. 

Lyle, J. Bankston, 153, 154. 

Magnetic Iron Company, 70. 
Magnolia Street, 215. 

Magnolia Street Cemetery, 101. 175. 
Magnolia Street School. 215, 221, 240. 
Manning, W. S'., 22, 223. 

Mansion House, 63. 

Manufacturers Association of Con¬ 
federate States, 81. 

Mary Black Memorial Hospital, 279. 
Masons, 110, 175, 213. 

May Day Celebrations, 120, 224. 
McCollough, J. D„ 113, 179. 
McCravey, H. A., 129. 

Mcjunkin, Joseph, 29, 30. 

McTunkin, Samuel, 30, 33. 
McKendree’s Chapel, 85. 

McMahon family, 15. 

McMakin, Carrie. 229. 

McMillan’s Mills, 80. 

Means, Mrs. Celina E, 215. 

Means, S. C.. 146, 158, 161, 184. 
Merchants’ Hotel. 186, 196, 206. 
Methodists, 59, 64. 84, 87, 109, 124, 
131. 


Index 


301 


Mexican War, 67, 121. 

Migration, the Western, 82. 

Militia, 16, 23, 26, 32, 121. 

Militia Act, 175. 

Miller, J. W., 91, 106, 158. 

Miller family, 15, 22. 

Mills, 18, 71, 124, 171, 173, 185, 217. 
Mills, Robert, 50, 51, 56, 84, 96, 183. 
Minerva School, 95. 

Minute Girls, in 1860, 125. 

Minute Men, in 1860, 125, 126. 
Model Cotton Mill, 275. 

Montgomery, Frank Gibbes, 266. 
Montgomery, John H., 121, 211, 217, 
222, 223. 

Moore, Paul V., 200, 236, 246. 

Moore, Thomas, 46, 94. 

Moore, T. J., 168, 169, 189, 194, 197, 
200, 216, 217, 264. 

Moore family, 15, 122. 

Morgan, Daniel, 32, 205, 207. 
Morgan Light Infantry, 128, 136. 
Morgan Monument, 37, 207. 

Morgan Rifles, 107, 123, 127, 136. 
Morgan Square, 207, 210, 233. 
Morrison, William S., 221. 

Morton family, 15. 

Moses, Franklin J., 160, 161. 

Mount Vernon Association, 107. 
Mount Zion Baptist Church, 85. 
Mountain Shoals (now Enoree), 76, 
104. 

Mozart Choral Club, 226. 

Municipal Centenary, 281. 

Musgrove’s Mill, 21, 27, 30, 94. 
Music, in schools, 102, 224, 227, 229. 

National Union Party Convention, 
143. 

Nazareth Presbyterian Church, 16, 
30, 85, 99, 117, 177, 180. 

Negroes, 119, 140, 148, 158, 162, 164, 
181, 183, 214. 

Nesbitt, James, 76, 91, 131, 147. 
Nesbitt, Samuel, 66, 94. 

Nesbitt, Willson, 60, 68, 71. 

Nesbitt family, 15. 

Nesbitt Iron Manufacturing Company, 
68, 69. 

Nesbitt’s Limekiln Spring, 49. 

New Hope Post Office, 104. 

New Prospect Baptist Church, 85, 97, 
104, 163. 

Newspapers, 63, 102. 

Nicholls, William Montague, 266. 
Nicholls family, 15. 

Nicholls Fort, 17. 

Nicholls Mill (later Anderson’s Mill), 
37. 

Ninety-Six, 19, 24, 27, 28, 30, 36. 
Ninety-Six District, 26, 30, 33, 35, 36. 


Ninety-Sixth Division, A. E. F., 253, 
255, 258. 

Noblit, Samuel, 93. 

North Carolina Line, 29, 34, 35. 
North Pacolet Presbyterian Church, 
85. 

Nullification, 82, 89, 125. 

Old Iron District, 66, 130. 

One Hundred and Eighteenth Inf., 262 
One Hundred and Fifth Inf., 249. 

One Hundred and Second Military 
Police, 240. 

O’Neall, J. B„ 83, 90, 95, 111. 

Opera House, 206, 212. 

Ordinance of Secession, 126. 
Orphans’ Friend, The, 179. 

Orr, James L., 141, 144, 148, 151, 197. 
O’Ryan, John F., 236, 237, 248, 251, 
259, 271. 

Over There Club, 248. 

Owen, Mary, 62. 


Pacific Mills, 71, 275. 

Pacolet, 123, 163, 205. 

Pacolet flood, 201. 

Pacolet Guards, 128. 

Pacolet Mills, 201, 211. 

Pacolet Settlement, 12, 15, 18. 
Pacolet Springs (Poole’s Springs), 
49, 123. 

Paine, Phoebe, 61, 62, 113. 

Painters, of portraits, 231. 

Palmetto Air School, 284. 

Palmetto Building, 212. 

Palmetto flag, 125. 

Palmetto House, 107, 111, 120, 126, 
127, 132, 139, 176, 177, 178, 212. 
Palmetto Sharpshooters, 136, 163. 
Pardo, Spanish explorer, 14. 

Paris Mountain, 23. 

Patrons of Husbandry, 168, 177. 
Patterson’s Spring, 49. 

Pauline, 104, 248. 

Peach Industry, 277. 

Pearis, Richard, 23, 24. 

Pearson family, 15. 

Peden family, 15. 

Peete, A. T., 220, 226. 

Pell, Robert P., 223, 228, 283. 
Pendleton, W. H. K„ 264. 

Pendleton Manufacturing Company, 
78. 

Penney family, 15. 

People’s Hospital, 214. 

People’s ticket, 146. 

Perry, B. F„ 31, 64, 140, 141, 144, 
145, 146, 159, 161, 181. 

Pershing, John J., 259, 262. 

Petty, Charles, 92, 180, 190, 193, 195, 
206, 217, 221, 222. 


302 


Index 


Philadelphia Baptist Church, 83, 84, 
104, 133. 

Piedmont & Northern Railway, 236, 
274. 

Piedmont Headlight, 198. 

Piedmont House, 177, 178. 

Piedmont Seminary, 220, 226. 

Pioneer Club, 175. 

Pioneer Regiments, at Camp Wads¬ 
worth, 252. 

Poinier, Samuel T., 146, 147. 

Poole, John, 60. 

Poole, R. C, 63, 140. 

Poole, Thomas, 57, 60. 

Poole, William, 40, 66. 

Poole’s Iron Works, 67. 

Poole’s Spring (Pacolet Spring), 49. 
Poolesville, 95, 104. 

Poplar Springs, 85, 97, 158, 248. 
Population figures, 43, 51, 56, 174, 206. 
Port Royal & S. C. Rwy., 169. 
Post-War Enterprises, 273. 

Powder Springs, 50. 

Powell Knitting Company, 275. 
Presbyterians, 59, 84, 87, 124, 214. 
Prince family, 16. 

Prince’s Fort, 17. 

Provincial Congress, of S. C., 19. 
Public Ground (Public Square), 37, 
42, 63, 111, 159. 

Public Health measures, 279. 

Quakers, 43, 82. 

Quarters (of slaves), 120. 

Quilting parties, 117. 

Radicals, 140, 162. 

Railroads, 105, 114, 116, 168, 273. 
Rainbow Lake, 284. 

Ravenel, H. E., 222. 

Ray, Thomas, 87, 89. 

Ray family, 15. 

Reconstruction, 121, 142, 143, 144, 175. 
Records, County, 36, 38. 

Red Cross, 233. 

Red Shirts, 164, 217. 

Reid, R. H., 99, 132, 177, 179, 180. 
Reidville, 14, 99, 192, 248. 

Reidville Female College, 99, 201. 
Reidville Male High School, 99. 
Reidville schools, 124, 179. 

Religion, denominations, 84. 
Republican Party, 144, 146. 
Revolutionists. 16, 18, 23, 25, 29. 67. 
Rich Hill (Rich, Whitestone), 104, 
192, 205. 

Rifle Clubs, 150. 

Roads, 18, 44, 52, 104, 273. 

Rock Cliff (Garrett Springs), 175, 

211 . 

Rock Spring Academy, 95. 

Roebuck’s Regiment, 32. 


Rolling Mill (Hurricane Shoals), 130. 
Roman Catholics, 214. 

Russell, W. T., 147, 225. 

St. John’s Classical & Military School, 
123. 

St. John’s College, 113. 

St. John’s Day, 175. 

St. John’s Hall, 179. 

St. John’s High School, 113, 222. 

St. Paul’s Catholic Church, 214. 
Saxon Mills, 218. 

Scarborough School, 96. 

School for Deaf & Blind, 98, 179, 283. 
Schools, 60, 92, 99, 102, 120, 124, 131, 
180, 221, 280. 

Schwing, James A., 234, 261, 262, 264. 
Scotch-Irish Presbyterians, 15, 19, 82. 
Scott, Robert K, 148, 150, 160. 
Secession, 91, 124, 126. 

Second Army Corps, AEF, 259. 
Second Regiment, N.C.N.G., 238. 
Second Spartan Regiment, 23. 
Selden, Julia, 224. 

Settlements, Settlers, 12, 15, 21, 34, 
36, 73, 78. 

Seventh Engineers, N.Y.N.G., 242. 
Shell, G. W., 193; Manifesto, 194; 

Convention, 194, 195. 

Sheriff, Hilla, 280. 

Shipp, A. M., 132. 

Sickles, D. E„ 141, 144, 146. 

Simms, William Gilmore, 64. 
Simpson, W. D., 159, 160. 164, 169. 
Sisters of the Confederate States, 130. 
Singing Schools, 100. 

Sixth Division, AEF, 253, 265. 
Slavery, 75, 82. 

Smith, Robert M., 146, 147, 153, 160, 
161, 193, 195, 196. 

Smith, Sanford, 18, 66. 

Snoddy family, 15, 104. 

Snow Camps, Snow Campaign, 22. 
Snyder, Henry Nelson. 264, 282. 

Social life, 42, 44, 117, 175. 

Soil Conservation Service, 278. 
Soldiers, Revolutionary, 43; Confed¬ 
erate, 131, 135, 140, 142; Federal, 
in Spartanburg, 135, 141, 142, 149, 
154, 160, 171; World War, from 
Spartanburg, 265, 268, 269. 
Soldiers’ Aid and Relief Associations, 
130. 

Soldiers’ Board of Relief, 131. 

Sons of Confederate Veterans, 216. 
Sosnowski, Madame, 96. 

South Carolina & West Indian Ex¬ 
position, Spartanburg exhibit at, 
200 . 

South Atlantic States Music Festival 
(Spartanburg Musical Festival), 
220, 227, 228. 


Index 


303 


South Carolina Cotton Manufactory, 

South Carolina Cotton Manufactur¬ 
ing Co., 76. 

South Carolina Iron Manufacturing 
Co., 71. 

South Carolina Manufacturing Co., 
68, 70, 130. 

South Carolina Peach Growers Co¬ 
operative Association, 278. 

South Carolina Rangers, 31. 

South Tyger Manufactory, 78. 

South Tyger River Project (Soil 
Conservation Service), 278. 

Southern Guards, 125. 

Southern Harmony, 101. 

Southern Railway, 216, 236, 264. 

Spartan, The, 63, 79, 102, 125, 134. 

Spartan (Spartanburgh, Spartanburg) 
County, 11, 33-44. 

Spartan (Spartanburg) District, 34, 
50, 51, 124. 

Spartan Fire Engine Company, 209. 

Spartan Mills, 217, 218. 

Spartan Regiment, Spartans, 11, 21, 
22, 23, 24, 25, 28, 29, 32, 34. 

Spartan Rifles, 128, 136, 163, 206. 

Spartanburg (Spartanburgh), 54-65; 
105, 108-114; 204-219, 281-284. 

Spartanburg Agricultural and Me¬ 
chanical Society, 106. 

Spartanburg Agricultural Society, 
168. 

Spartanburg Art Club, 232. 

Spartanburg-Asheville Railroad, 177. 

Spartanburg Baptist Association, 180. 

Spartanburg Children’s Festival Cho¬ 
rus, 227, 229. 

Spartanburg Choral Union, 225. 

Spartanburg Cotton Association, 276. 

Spartanburg County Alliance, 192. 

Spartanburg County Fair Association, 
247. 

Spartanburg County General Hos¬ 
pital. 279. 

Spartanburg County Warehouse Com¬ 
pany, 276. 

Spartanburg Dancing Club, 178. 

Spartanburg Farmers’ Market Asso¬ 
ciation, 278. 

Spartanburg Female Academy, 96. 

Spartanburg Female College, 112, 120, 
124. 132, 178, 214, 220, 222. 

Spartanburg Female Seminary, 61, 
113. 

Spartanburg Herald (see Herald). 

Spartanburg High School Band, 229. 

Spartanburg Hospital, 213. 

Spartanburg Male Academy, 60, 113. 

Spartanburg Male Chorus, 230. 

Spartanburg Music Festival (see 


South Atlantic States Music Fes¬ 
tival). 

Spartanburg Musical Association, 190, 
226. 

Spartanburg Philanthropic Society, 
94. 

Spartanburg Silver Cornet Band, 171, 
176. 

Spartanburg-Union Railroad, 114, 115, 
116, 124, 161, 164, 169, 171. 

Spartanburg Village Academy, 60. 

Springs, mineral, 35, 123. 

Stagecoaches, 104, 105. 

Startex Cotton Mill (Tucapau), 71. 
275. 

State Agricultural and Mechanical 
Society, 188. 

State Agricultural Fair, 171, 172. 

State Dispensary System, 198, 199. 

State Farmers’ Union, 190. 

State Press Association Convention, 
Second, 177. 

State Teachers’ Institute, First, 220. 

State Temperance Convention, 64, 84. 

States Rights (see Nullification), 90, 
137. 

Statistics of South Carolina (Mills), 
50, 183. 

Stay-Law order, 144, 166. 

Steedly Hospital, 214. 

Straight-outs, 162, 196. 

Sulphur Springs (Glenn’s Springs), 
50. 

Sumter, Thomas, 24, 25, 28, 29. 

Sunday School Conventions, 123. 

Swedish Iron Manufacturing Com¬ 
pany, 69, 70. 

Tarleton, Banastre, 24, 29, 30, 32. 

Taxpayers’ Convention, Unions, 152, 
160, 161. 

Temperance, Temperance organiza¬ 
tions, 82, 83, 84, 123. 

Tennent, William, 19, 21. 

Textile Industrial Institute, 220, 224, 
283. 

Textile Industry, 73, 275. 

Thirteenth Regiment, S.C.V., 136. 

Thirtieth Division, A.E.F., 234, 256, 
259. 

Thomas, John, Jr., 24, 25, 26, 28, 33, 
36, 37, 38, 43, 95. 

Thomas, John, Sr., 11, 21, 22, 23, 24, 
25, 43. 

Thompson family, 15. 

Thomson, H. H., 57, 91, 112, 136. 

Thomson, Richard, 59. 

Thomson’s Spring (Garrett Springs), 
64, 175. 

Three Hundred Eighty-first Infantry, 
A.E.F., 255. 


304 


Index 


Three Hundred Eighty-second Infan¬ 
try, A.E.F., 255. 

Tillman, B. R., 188, 193, 195, 196, 
197, 200. 

Tobacco, 17. 

Tolleson, Alfred, 111, 169. 

Tolleson’s Road, 52. 

Tolls, early, 44. 

Tories, 16, 23, 24, 29, 31. 

Tournaments, 121, 176. 

Tucapau, 71. 

Tucker, Joseph Wofford, 100, 109, 
113, 214. 

Turner, Claude C., 147, 160. 

Twenty-second Engineers, N.Y.N.G., 
242, 245, 246. 

Twenty-second Regiment, N.Y.N.G., 
238. 

Twenty-seventh Division, A.E.F., 237, 
241, 242, 245, 246, 251, 253, 256, 259. 

Twitched, Albert H., 79, 171, 218, 223, 
225, 226. 

Twitty’s Grove, 164. 

Tyger River, first settlements on, 15. 

Tyger Volunteers, 128. 

Unionists, 90, 91. 

United Daughters of Confederacy, 
Spartan Chapter, 216. 

United States Public Health Service, 
Pellagra study, 214. 

Up-Country Experimental Station, 
189. 

Upper Brigade, South Carolina Mili¬ 
tia, 23. 

Upper District, 12, 21, 23, 26, 29, 31, 
32. 

Upper Saluda Regiment, 16, 21. 

Valley Falls Factory, 170, 171. 

Vanderbilt, Cornelius, 238, 243, 244. 

Vanderbilt, Cornelius, Jr., 244, 248. 

Vernon, T. O. P., 60, 106, 110, 212. 

Vernon family, 15, 122. 

Vernonsville (Duncan), 97, 205. 

View of South Carolina, 43. 

Vigilance societies, 125. 

Volunteer Companies, A.E.F., 235. 

Wadsworth, James, 251, 259. 

Wadsworth, James S., 237. 

Wakefield’s Powder Spring, 99. 

Walker, Joseph, 128, 136, 138, 205, 
211, 218, 222, 223, 231. 

Walker, Newton F., 193, 194, 200, 
222, 223. 

Walker, Newton Pinckney, 98, 129. 

Walker, William (“Singing Billy”), 
100, 112, 131, 181, 224. 

Walker House, 63, 64, 126, 132, 139, 
176. 

Wallace, A. S'., 143, 160. 


Walnut Grove, 104, 146, 192. 

Ward, J. Q. A., 208. 

Washington Light Infantry, 106, 206. 
Washington Societies, 84. 
Washington’s Dragoons, 30. 

Weaver Factories, 73-77. 

Weaving, domestic, 73, 78. 

Wellford, 122, 163, 192, 205, 248, 280. 
Western Migration, 107. 

Whigs, 25, 26, 27, 29. 

Whipping post, 36, 37, 39. 

White, Daniel, 51, 63, 95, 96. 

White, John Belton, 267. 

White’s Mill, 55, 170. 

Whitney Mill, 218. 

Wightman, William M., Ill, 120. 
Wildcat Division (Eighty-first Divi¬ 
sion), 265. 

Williams, James, 25, 27, 28. 
Williamson, Thomas, 37, 43, 95. 
Wilson, B. F., 222, 223, 283. 
Winsmith, John, 91, 106, 129, 140, 141, 
152, 153, 158, 160. 

Wofford, Benjamin, 74, 87, 111, 112, 
231. 

Wofford, Harvey, 131, 168. 

Wofford, J. W., 163, 189, 193, 194, 
197. 

Wofford, William, 18, 34. 

Wofford College, 111, 120, 124, 125, 
132, 178, 201, 233, 246, 257, 283. 
Wofford College Lyceum, 220. 
Wofford College Star Club, 175. 
Wofford’s Iron Works, 11, 18, 21, 27, 
29, 31, 67, 71, 78. 

Wolf Creek Baptist Church, 85. 
Woman’s Memorial Lutheran Church, 
214. 

Woman’s Musical Club, 230. 

Women’s Auxiliary, of Y.M.C.A., 233. 
Woodruff, A. B., 141, 153, 160, 161, 
168, 169, 197. 

Woodruff, Thomas, 87, 88. 

Woodruff, 129, 131, 205. 

Woodruff Meeting House (later 
Bethel Baptist Church), 16. 

Wood’s Fort, 17. 

Word Academy, 96. 

World War, 17, 191, 233, 265, 268, 
269. 

Wright, Elizabeth, 59. 

WSPA, radio station, 284. 

Young, R. M., 57, 60, 61, 96. 

Young Men’s Christian Association, 
building of, 213. 

Young Women’s Christian Associa¬ 
tion, 214. 

Zimmerman, John C., 80, 91, 106, 131, 
146, 168, 171. 

Zion Travelers, 173. 


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